The Tuareg Society within a Globalized World: Saharan Life in Transition

by Ines Kohl (Editor), Anja Fischer (Editor)

Overview

The Tuareg (Kel Tamasheq) are an ancient nomadic people who have inhabited the Sahara, one of the most extreme environments in the world, for millennia. In what ways have the lives of the Tuareg changed, and what roles do they have, in a modern and increasingly globalized world? Here, leading scholars explore the many facets of contemporary Tuareg existence: from transnational identity to international politics, from economy to social structure, from music to beauty, from mobility to slavery. This book provides a comprehensive portrait of Saharan life in transition, presenting an important new theoretical approach to the anthropology and history of the region. Dealing with issues of mobility, cosmopolitanism, and transnational movements, this is essential reading for students and scholars of the history, culture and society of the Tuareg, of nomadic peoples, and of North Africa more widely. This book is the first comprehensive study of the Tuareg today, exploring the ways in which the Tuareg themselves are moving global.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848853706
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/15/2010
Series:	Library of Modern Middle East Studies
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Anja Fischer was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, where she is a lecturer in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. She has been conducting annual fieldwork among nomads in Algeria since 2002. Her research focuses on the economic and linguistic anthropology of nomads in the Sahara. Ines Kohl is senior researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her main interests are concentrated on the anthropology of borderlands and questions of migration, transnationality and identity among the Kel Tamasheq between Niger, Algeria and Libya.

Table of Contents

Acronyms and Abbreviations vii

Acknowledgements x

Terminology and Transcription xii

1 Tuareg Moving Global: An Introduction Ines Kohl Anja Fischer 1

Part I Where is Saharan Anthropology Going?

2 Research and Nomads in the Age of Globalization Anja Fischer 11

3 Tuareg Networks: An Integrated Approach to Mobility and Stasis Alessandra Giuffrida 23

4 Tuareg City Blues: Cultural Capital in a Global Cosmopole Baz Lecocq 41

Part II From Past to Present: Ongoing Discourses

5 Foreign Cloth and Kel Ewey Identity Gerd Spittler 61

6 Genesis and Change in the Socio-political Structure of the Tuareg Dida Badi 75

7 Tuareg Trajectories of Slavery: Preliminary Reflections on a Changing Field Benedetta Rossi 89

Part III Diversified Norms and Values

8 The Price of Marriage: Shifting Boundaries, Compromised Agency and the Effects of Globalization on Iklan Marriages Annemarie Bouman 109

9 Debating Beauties: Contested and Changing Female Bodily Aesthetics of Fatness among the Tuareg Susan Rasmussen 125

10 Libya, the 'Europe of Ishumar': Between Losing and Reinventing Tradition Ines Kohl 143

11 The Ishumar Guitar: Emergence, Circulation and Evolution, from Diasporic Performances to the World Scene Nadia Belalimat 155

12 Between the Worlds: Tuareg as Entrepreneurs in Tourism Marko Scholze 171

Part IV Sahara: Global Playground

13 Ambiguous Meanings of Ikufar and their Role in Development Projects Sarah Lunacek 191

14 Resisting Imperialism: Tuareg Threaten US, Chinese and Other Foreign Interests Jeremy Keenan 209

Glossary 231

Notes on the Contributors 235

Notes 239

References 275

Index 295