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The Berbers of Morocco Author(S): W The Berbers of Morocco Author(s): W. B. Harris Source: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 27 (1898), pp. 61-73 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2842849 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 02:39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.78.108.40 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 02:39:04 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 61 MARCH 9TH, 1897. E. W. BRABROOK,Esq., F.S.A., President,in the Chair. The Minutesof the last Meeting were readand signed. The followillocommunication was read by the Author " The Mythologyof Wise Birds,"by Dr. COLLEYMARCH. The PPESIDENT,Sir H. Low, Dr. GARSON,Mr. LEWIS,Mr. ATKINSON,Ptev. Mr. HUTCHINSON,and Mr. B. PUSEY discussed the paper,alncd a vote of thanks was unanimouslypassed. lThe BERBERS of MOROCCO. By W. B. HARRIS. THE term Moors is so generallyapplied to the inhabitantsof Morocco,that thereare manywho are unawareto-day that the population of that benightedempire consists of two distinct races, so distinct indeed that they boast of originsentirely separateand apart. While the Arab, or Semitic,invasion of Moroccodid not occur until mallycenturies after the Christiana era,the Berbers,a distinctlyHamitic race,had been inhabiting North Africa fromtime immemorial,even if it was not the cradle of their race. Of these Berbers but little is known. True it is that Algeria and Tunis have been opelled up to European ideas and influences,but in spite of this the retiring, characterof the Berbers has tended not a little to keep their race in the background,though the Frencl, oftenenough, have found it no easy task to subdue and pacify these turbulent people. But even beforethe conquest by France of Algeria, the Berber people of that countryhad amalgamatedfar more largelywith the Arabs than has even been the case in Morocco. The explanationof this is easy to find,for in Algeria while both races were governedfor long periods by an extraneouspower -Turkev and Turkish Beys-it was only natural that the tribesof the two races in question,who shared betweeinthem the proprietorshipof the soil, should find a common cause. Nor did the invasionof the countryby French troops tend to widen any breach that might exist between the two races,for here again it was a mutual defence of the counitryand the religionthey both shared against a foreionand, to them,infidel power. This content downloaded from 195.78.108.40 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 02:39:04 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 62 W. B. HARRIs.-The Berbersof Miorocco. But in Moroccothere has been no commoncause to unite the Berbersand Arabs,for since the firstconquest of the country by the invading Semites, a deadly hatred has existed, which burns to-day as fiercelyas ever, fanned into rebellion and warfare whenever the dominatingArab power attempts to enforcetribute, or practisessome nefariousact of treachery,in which act the Moorish Governmentis unequalled, upon the more confidingand more manlyBerbers. Everythingin fact has tended throughall these centuriesto widen the breach between them,u-ntil to-day, even when inhabitingcommon soil in the cities,the two races remainentirely separate. So far do theyhold aloofone fromanother that it is almostalways a rule to find the membersof each people favouringcertain parts of the towns,and congregatedtogether in quartersof their own. Thus it is that at Tangier,where the representativesof the Berber race are almost entirelyRiffis of the Mediterranean coast,of whommnore anon, while the town is given overto the Arab or Moorish population,the descendantsof the Hamitic stockhave built themselvesan extensivevillage of thatchhuts on the summitof a near hill,where they reside and own an alle- giance little more than nominal to the Basha, or Governorof Tangier, whose residence stares them in the face. And so throughoutall Morocco,with the exception of the southern capital,Marakesh, where the Berberpopulation is miuchlarger, and where theyseem to have so far amalgamatedas to share the same quartersof the city. But it is not withthe Berbers who have left their wild mountains to congregate in the proximityof the towns that we have to do here,for, although even in this case the type and language have remainedun- changed,they bave to some extent adopted the customs and the habits of the Moors, and accordinglysome of the typical race characterwhich is only to be foundto-day in the remoter portions of the country,where the officialsand rapacity of the Moorish Governmenthave not reached them, and the immiloralityand depravityof the Arab are as yet uniknown. The Berber populationof Moroccomay be divided into four distinctclasses, three of whichalone can lay claim to possess- ing the pure blood of theiroriginal ancestors. Althoughthese four divisionspossess much in common there are yet great differencesto be distinguishedby the observer. That theyown a common origin none can doubt, and to this too tradition clearly points. There is a tale well known amongst the Berbersof Moroccoof whichthe true and hiddenimeaning, is yet to be evolved. Once, so the storyruns, their common ancestor lived in a far away land where stormsof wilndwere of constantoccurrence. This content downloaded from 195.78.108.40 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 02:39:04 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions W. B. HARRIS.-ThteBerber-s of 2lforocco. 63 Upon a certainday a younggirl of the people was passing by the road-side whenia king rode past. A gust of the wind raising her garments,more of her body than was decent was exposed to view. The king laughed,and for very shame the girl and her tribemigrated and came intowhat is now Morocco. This tale, told to the writerby representativesof the various sectionsof the Berberrace, differs little if anythingin detail in the mouthsof any,and seems as well known in the Riff,t,o the extremenorth of Morocco,as it is on the southernside of the Atlas Mountains. Yet in spite of the fact that it is quotedlby Riffiand Susi alike, these divisionsof therace, together with the Berbers of the Central Atlas range, speak languages which, though undoubtedlyrelated, are, except for individual words, unilntelligibleone to alnother,while in outward appearance the type is verydifferent. Mentionof the fourdivisions of the Berbersby lname,and theirgeographical distribution, is necessary beforeany details as to their nmannersand customs and modes of life can be entered upon. Commencingfromn the north of the country we find the long strip of Mediterraneancoast between the French frontierof Algeria anid the mountainsto the south of Tetuan inhabitedby the Riffis,perhaps the wildestand most turbulentof all. Cut off fromthese to the south by Arab tribes,and inihabitingthe northerniand central slopes of the Atlas range,frolmi Fez on the north to AMarakeshin the south, are the purest Berbers of Morocco, the unexploredand little knowntribes of Beni Mgild, Ait Yussi, Ghiata Beni Mtir and others. South of the western slopes of the Atlas, that is to say, south and west of Marakesh, alongi the slopes of the mountainsand the valley of the W\TadSus, are the Stusitribes, withwhich may be counted those of Haha, Mtuga and others. South of these again and extendingalong the northernlimits of the Sahara and the valley of the Wad Draa are the Drauis, or as theyare morecommonly called amongsttheir own people, the Haratin, a niameimplying freemen as against slaves. It is to this divisionof the people that referencewas made above wlhenit was stated that one class could not boast of pure Hamitic origini,for so largely have these Drauis intermixed with the black tribesof the NorthernSiidan that in type,as well as in colour,they show more signs of their negro than their Berber origin, thouightheir language is more closely related to that of the other Berber people than it is to the Genauia of the Sudan. Having now brieflydwelt upon the sections of the Berber race to be found in Morocco, some few words must be said as to theirnomenclature and the termsthey use in describinlg This content downloaded from 195.78.108.40 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 02:39:04 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 64 W. B. HARRLS.-The Berbersof iVorocco. themselves. While the name Berber is traced back to an oriainal chieftain" Barbar" by some wlho have studied more or less this interesting,people, they them.selvesgenerally kniowof no such fable as far as the writer'sresearches have been able to discover,though the division of the people in- habiting the central Atlas undoubtedlydo, in speaking, use Berber (plural Berebber)as one of their names,though even here theyprefer the term Shleh (plural Shloh) which in their languagesignifies " nobility." This termis commonto all, even the Pbiffisusinig it of themselves,though less commonlythan any other section of the people. A second, and as it were classical name, "Aimazigh"-also meaning nobility,-is found, thoughit scarcely ever is used colloquially, being referred-to, almost solely when inquiries are being made fromthe people themselvesas to theirorigin.
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