Disciplined, resistant, and commodified bodies. The politics of Amazigh performances in a Middle Atlas town
This article examines the role of Berber cultural performances in the processes of construction, rearticulation, and negotiation of Moroccan national identity, highlighting how the body becomes simultaneously a site of cultural expression and an object of state governance. Through an ethnographic ap...
Shranjeno v:
| izdano v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/anuac, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
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Anuac
2026
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| Online dostop: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Izvleček: | This article examines the role of Berber cultural performances in the processes of construction, rearticulation, and negotiation of Moroccan national identity, highlighting how the body becomes simultaneously a site of cultural expression and an object of state governance. Through an ethnographic approach focused on the festivals of Sefrou, particularly the Cherry Festival and the Ahazij Festival, the study explores the dynamics of folklorization, depoliticization, and commodification of Berber culture, showing how such practices are integrated into a state project aimed at producing a unified notion of “Moroccanness.” However, these performances do not function solely as instruments of discipline, but also as spaces of subtle resistance and identity renegotiation, where Amazigh performers articulate alternative forms of belonging and visibility. The article argues that festivals operate as biopolitical dispositifs through which state power choreographs cultural difference, while simultaneously generating micro-spaces of agency and symbolic reinterpretation of national identity. |
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