Land, Rights, and the Practice of Making a Living in Pre-Saharan Morocco

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology Anthropology 2012 LAND, RIGHTS, AND THE PRACTICE OF MAKING A LIVING IN PRE-SAHARAN MOROCCO Karen Eugenie Rignall University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Rignall, Karen Eugenie, "LAND, RIGHTS, AND THE PRACTICE OF MAKING A LIVING IN PRE-SAHARAN MOROCCO" (2012). Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology. 3. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/anthro_etds/3 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. 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Karen Eugenie Rignall, Student Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Major Professor Dr. Richard Jeffries, Director of Graduate Studies LAND, RIGHTS, AND THE PRACTICE OF MAKING A LIVING IN PRE-SAHARAN MOROCCO ______________________________________ DISSERTATION ______________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Karen Eugenie Rignall Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Associate Professor of Anthropology Lexington, Kentucky 2012 Copyright © Karen Eugenie Rignall 2012 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION LAND, RIGHTS, AND THE PRACTICE OF MAKING A LIVING IN PRE-SAHARAN MOROCCO This dissertation explores the relationship between land tenure and livelihoods in pre- Saharan Morocco as an ethical struggle over subsistence rights and the definition of community. Research in an oasis valley of southern Morocco indicated how changing land use practices framed contestations over community, political authority, and social hierarchies. The dissertation specifically examines the extension of settlement and cultivation from the oasis into the arid steppe. The research methodology contextualizes household decision-making around land use and livelihood strategies within the framework of land tenure regimes and other regional, national, and global processes. Households with the resources and prestige to navigate customary tenure regimes in their favor used these institutions to facilitate land acquisition and investments in commercial agricultural production. Rather than push for capitalist land markets, they invoked a discourse of communalism in support of customary regimes. In contrast, marginalized families without access to land mobilized to divide collective lands and secure individual freehold tenure. This complicates a prominent critique in agrarian studies that privatization signals the immersion of peripheral lands into neoliberal tenure regimes. The research shows that in southern Morocco, resistance to communal tenure regimes favoring elites was rooted in a discourse of subsistence rights and ethical claims to membership in a just community rather than a simple acquiescence to the power of neoliberal property relations. The dissertation therefore explores the shifting fault lines of social differentiation and the political and cultural embeddedness of land in processes of "repeasantization," the resurgence of rural peasantries in the context of the growing industrialization of global food production. The research draws on cultural anthropology, geography, and political economy to explore an understudied issue in the anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa: the economic and environmental dimensions of agrarian livelihoods and rural social dynamics from a critical theoretical perspective. KEYWORDS: Land Tenure, Middle East and North Africa, Agrarian Change, Rural Livelihoods, Political Ecology Karen Eugenie Rignall Student's Signature June 7, 2012 Date LAND, RIGHTS, AND THE PRACTICE OF MAKING A LIVING IN PRE-SAHARAN MOROCCO By Karen Eugenie Rignall Lisa Cliggett, PhD Director of Dissertation Richard Jeffries, PhD Director of Graduate Studies June 7, 2012 Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first thanks go to the friends and research participants in the Mgoun valley and elsewhere in Morocco who made this dissertation possible. I was touched by the generosity with which they shared their stories and by the myriad ways, both large and small, that people in Mgoun welcomed my family into the life of their communities. Rachida and Malika Ouchaou supported our family and enriched my research through their creative insights and extensive networks. Moulay Ahmed El Amrani was the key to my fieldwork experience, facilitating both my professional and personal relationships. Mastafa Zahir and Elphège Ghestem welcomed us in Rabat and were instrumental in the choice of Mgoun for the research. Lahcen Azghari, Said Samlali, and El Houcine Attar were my closest collaborators in the research. The Ait el Hashimis were my second family, and there are many more people throughout the valley who I cannot name but who were deeply generous and welcoming. I can only hope that the profound personal experience my fieldwork represented finds some expression in the written product. The fieldwork was made possible by the National Science Foundation (project award no. 0920370) and the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (project award no. 8064). I am grateful for graduate support funding from the University of Kentucky as well the University of Kentucky Multi-Year Fellowship that made my graduate work possible. The Department of Anthropology was a wonderful place to do a PhD and I am grateful for the intellectual environment and institutional support. I want to thank MaryBeth Chrostowsky, Allison Harnish, Maria Moreno, and Monica Stephens for their camaraderie in our writing group. Thanks also to my cohort, Alissa Lamb, Lizz New, and Sheila Dorsey Vinton and the many other graduate students who created such a collegial environment in the department. Ilana Feldman, Mani Limbert, and Jessica Winegar offered warm encouragement along the way and models of anthropological scholarship to which I aspire. iii Jim Miller and Saadia Maski of the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange assisted with the research clearance process and otherwise facilitated my fieldwork by welcoming me into their community of scholars. Mohamed Ait Hamza of the Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe provided patient guidance that reinforced the foundation laid by his extensive scholarship on the region.Yahia Bouabdellaoui of the Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II was a welcoming interlocutor who related my experiences to the broader context of Morocco. Myriem Noussairi and Aziz Rahou of the United Nations Development Program were generous with their time and resources. Many local, provincial, and national government officials were similarly supportive of my work. My dissertation committee, Lisa Cliggett, Deborah Crooks, Hsain Ilahiane, Diane King, and Jerry Skees, mentored me throughout my graduate work, offering me richly diverse perspectives on how to conduct ethical, relevant research. As my dissertation chair, Lisa Cliggett was particularly supportive and provided a model for how to become a critically engaged anthropologist. Hsain Ilahiane provided uniquely helpful guidance based on his experience in the tamazirt. In the geography department, Morgan Robertson and Tad Mutersbaugh offered critical feedback at all stages of the project. I would like to thank my parents, Raymond and Raymonde Rignall, for instilling me with a curiosity about the world that hinges on ethical engagement and for their unwavering encouragement. My other parents, Sami and Betty Kalliney, patiently supported us in our various wanderings; it was their personal sacrifice that enabled the fieldwork to get started at all. Finally, my thanks go to Peter, who gave me immeasurable support and intellectual inspiration. This dissertation reflects the space he provided, the theoretical insights he offered, and the collective adventure that made the experience of fieldwork so rich.

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