Publication Date
Fall 2025
Abstract
Amazigh culture in Morocco has frequently been conceptualized as a rural phenomenon due to the repression of “Amazighness” in urban settings. However, Agadir, a Southern city boasting a rich Amazigh cultural life where public symbols of Indigenous identity flourish, offers a challenge to this dichotomy. This is especially true following the King’s recognition of Amazigh national heritage, the establishment of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, and the officialization of the Tamazight language, recent changes which have increasingly propelled Amazigh culture into the public and urban spheres. While past scholarship has emphasized the role of rural women as guardians of Amazigh heritage, this project focuses on the question, “How is the role of Amazigh women as the preservers of cultural heritage developing within the context of an increasingly public and urban construction of Indigenous identity?” To explore this topic, the study will explore how Agadir’s Amazigh scholars and civil society actors conceptualize the role of urban women in heritage preservation, how symbols of Amazigh culture are feminized throughout public spaces, and how young Amazigh women navigate these dynamics by promoting their identity in new and creative ways. This project centers an anthropological approach incorporating observation and interviews with Agadir University scholars, activists connected with Tamaynut Association, and students and young professionals personally invested in the Amazigh cause. The findings point to the complex ways in which young women carry on the legacy of Amazigh heritage preservation while navigating changing relationships of power, visibility, space, globalization, community, and memory.
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Hunt, Madeleine, "The Changing Roles of Women in Amazigh Heritage Preservation in Agadir" (2025). Morocco: Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformation. 11.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/mor2/11