Dialect and culture among the Bedouins of Tunisia

The project deals with the Arabic dialect and the orally-transmitted culture of the semi-nomadic Marazig tribe in the region called Nefzaoua situated south of the Chott el-Jerid. This three-years project will focus on sociolinguistics (especially women`s speech), oral poetry and narratives, and popular religion. In contrast to most existing studies on North African Arabic dialects, this project will not be restricted to philology alone. The collection of a large corpus of oral poetry and narratives will be followed by an analysis of their structure, imagery, and content. Traditional poems and narratives are not only literature but also expressions of the tribe`s self-identity: they articulate both the Bedouin society`s sense of its distance from sedentary communities and from the government, and the differences between subgroups within the Bedouin society itself. Moreover, in many Arab societies poetry and narrative are the only socially acceptable way of expressing feelings of love and joy or grief and loss. Therefore, we shall investigate, for instance, how young men use poetry to express their sense of conflict with the modern world, their problems in adjusting to their changing role in their society, and their experiences with foreign women. Many of the narratives are related to the veneration of saints and the belief in demons - the two most intriguing phenomena of so-called "popular Islam". We plan to compile a catalogue of all the holy places in the region, with detailed descriptions of the shrines. Our interviews with the caretakers and with individual pilgrims will give the representatives of the traditions a chance to speak for themselves and provide us with information about their motivations for pilgrimage and about their experiences with demons. Such collection and transcription of narratives and conversations is of utmost importance not only for a well-founded lexical, phraseological, and syntactic study on any specific Arabic dialect, but also for anthropological research in general and for oral history in particular. With regard to the proposed studies on popular religion, we shall try to determine if the paradigms already established by several studies in sedentary and urban societies are applicable to a Bedouin society. The conclusions of our research will be relevant not only to Oriental studies but also to broader studies in anthropology and sociology, particularly researches related to socio-linguistics, gender studies, religion, and traditional oral literature.

The project deals with the Arabic dialect and the orally-transmitted culture of the semi-nomadic Marazig tribe in the region called Nefzaoua situated south of the Chott el-Jerid. This three-years project will focus on sociolinguistics (especially women`s speech), oral poetry and narratives, and popular religion. In contrast to most existing studies on North African Arabic dialects, this project will not be restricted to philology alone. The collection of a large corpus of oral poetry and narratives will be followed by an analysis of their structure, imagery, and content. Traditional poems and narratives are not only literature but also expressions of the tribe`s self-identity: they articulate both the Bedouin society`s sense of its distance from sedentary communities and from the government, and the differences between subgroups within the Bedouin society itself. Moreover, in many Arab societies poetry and narrative are the only socially acceptable way of expressing feelings of love and joy or grief and loss. Therefore, we shall investigate, for instance, how young men use poetry to express their sense of conflict with the modern world, their problems in adjusting to their changing role in their society, and their experiences with foreign women. Many of the narratives are related to the veneration of saints and the belief in demons - the two most intriguing phenomena of so-called "popular Islam". We plan to compile a catalogue of all the holy places in the region, with detailed descriptions of the shrines. Our interviews with the caretakers and with individual pilgrims will give the representatives of the traditions a chance to speak for themselves and provide us with information about their motivations for pilgrimage and about their experiences with demons. Such collection and transcription of narratives and conversations is of utmost importance not only for a well-founded lexical, phraseological, and syntactic study on any specific Arabic dialect, but also for anthropological research in general and for oral history in particular. With regard to the proposed studies on popular religion, we shall try to determine if the paradigms already established by several studies in sedentary and urban societies are applicable to a Bedouin society. The conclusions of our research will be relevant not only to Oriental studies but also to broader studies in anthropology and sociology, particularly researches related to socio-linguistics, gender studies, religion, and traditional oral literature.