Village Matters - Knowledge, Politics and Community in Kabylia, Algeria (Hardcover)

Traces Kabylia's history through French occupation, the Algerian war of independence, and the political turmoil that followed. Kabylia is a Berber-speaking, densely populated mountainous region east of Algiers, that has played an important part in Algerian pre- and post-independence politics, and continues to be troublesome to central government. But 'Kabylia' is also an ideal, shaped and shared by a variety of intellectual trends both in Algeria and in France. Kabylia was seen by sociologically minded nineteenth-century French authors as a model of primitive democracy and became central to their debates about good government, the nature of 'race', nationhood, and the social bond. These qualities have by now largely been appropriated by Kabyles themselves, and have become central to Kabyle self-images discussed on numerous websites run by Kabyle emigrants in France as much as by local parties and associations in Kabylia itself. Central to this image is the Kabyles' attachment to their home villages. But what exactly makes a village a village? And how can this emphasis on communal autonomy be articulated within a modern nation-state? These are the questions this book tries to answer through an in-depth case study of one particular village, analysing the contemporary debates that animate it, and tracing its history through the French conquest and occupation, the Algerian war of independence, and the political turmoil, including the challenge of Islamist politics, that followed independence. The 'village', as much as Kabylia as a whole, emerges as a place made by its internal contradictions, and that can only be understood with reference to the position it occupies within the various intellectual, political, economic and cultural 'world-systems' of which it is part. Judith Scheele is a Research Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford

General

Imprint:	James Currey
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	African Anthropology
Release date:	March 2009
First published:	March 2009
Authors:	Judith Scheele
Dimensions:	234 x 156 x 23mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	191
ISBN-13:	978-1-84701-205-0
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Area / regional studies > General Promotions
LSN:	1-84701-205-1
Barcode:	9781847012050

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!