On the Spanish-Moroccan Frontier
A Study in Ritual, Power and Ethnicity
Henk Driessen(Author)
Berg Publishers
Published on 20. February 1992
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-85496-702-5 (ISBN)
Description
The encounter of Europe, Asia and Africa in the Mediterranean basin has given rise to a culturally rich world - a world created by two millennia of warfare and conquest, trading and cultural diffusion, confrontation and accommodation. Combining a historical with a social-anthropological approach, this study of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Eastern Morocco, offers a remarkable insight into these processes on the local, microscopic level, and shows Melilla's transformation into a trading post and base for colonial penetration and, finally, into a multi-ethnic enclave.
Reviews / Votes
'Clearly written, with a fine introduction and epilogue, this book is a valuable addition to the study of interethnic relations and cultural practices in the Mediterranean region. Recommended.' ChoiceMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrations
illustrations, bibliography, index
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-85496-702-5 (9780854967025)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Henk Driessen Associate Professor in Cultural and Social Anthropology,University of Nijmegen
Content
Part 1 The Hispano-African frontier in history: the anthropologist in the city; frontier and ethnicity; ritual and power; the enclave; the permeability of the frontier; the Presidio as a frontier institution; Catholicism on the frontier; desertion and apostasy; breaches in the frontier; from Presidio to trading post; Spanish expansion and Rifian resistance; life on the frontier; a booming trading post; taming Rifian society; pre-colonial images of the Rif; military ethnography; academic ethnography and the Rif; the making of a Jewish community; legends of origins; the beginning of a new Jewish community; the arrival of rural Jews; consolidation of the Jewish community; an ambiguous minority. Part 2 Ritual, power and ethnicity: a ceremony of the national flag; a ceremonial symbol par excellence; celebrating ethnic hegemony; structure and meaning of the flag ceremony; the dead nourishing the living; the Catholic ancestors; death in Melilla; the city of the dead; the cult of the cemetery; death cult and ethnicity; ritualization in inter-ethnic encounters; accommodation among ethnic elites; non-reciprocal "joking" and avoidance; Hindus and Muslims; Brahmans as compradores; from tribe to ghetto; "The Ravine of Death"; organizing Muslim ethnicity; marginality, bodily discourse and blurred ethnicity; the making of a community of marginals; an enclave within the enclave; prowess and prostitution.