Saskia
Walentowitz PhD thesis
Abstract
A Social Anthropology of Birth :
The Symbolic and Social Construction of Identities amongst the Tuareg (Kel Eghlal and Ayttawari Seslem of Azawagh, Niger).
The thesis analyzes the event of birth, from the
moment of conception to the end of the postnatal period, in order to
define the underlying principles of symbolic and social construction of
identities amongst the Tuareg. The ethnographic data come from field
research conducted amongst the Inesleman Kel Eghlal and Ayttawari
Seslem of Azawagh valley in Niger. Each element of the global process
of “making” a child (mythical, physiological and spiritual)
sheds new light on the different aspects of the tuareg kinship system.
The study of rites relating to birth, documented by photographs based
on video, completes this analysis and underscores the symbolic logic of
the system, based on the complementary opposition of male/female
principles, as in the brother/sister pair. An ethnolinguistic study of
the archaic berber language of the Ayttawari Seslem is also presented.
Key words : Tuareg – Berber – Niger – Azawagh –
Kel Eghlal – Ayttawari Seslem – Inesleman – ethnology
- social anthropology – anthropology of childhood –
ethnolinguistics – Islam – identity – kinship –
marriage – milk kinship – body – masculine / feminine
– brother / sister – procreation – pregnancy –
birth – death – postpartum - embryo – fetus –
child – personhood – food – ritual – rite of passage – sacrifice.
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