Kabyles

This article treats people Kabyle . For the language, to see the article Kabyle

---- The Kabyles are Berber people (amazigh) inhabitants the Kabylie, mountainous region in the east of Algiers in Algérie. The inhabitants of this area densément populated massively emigrated towards various parts of the country (in particular Algiers) and towards France. Since 1871, these people try to face a cultural assimilation, linguistic (Dialectical Arabic and French) and with a change of his social organization.

Etymology

The term “kabyle” would be originating in the Arab word qabā' it (rear RTL قبائل), plural of Al-qabīla (rear RTL قبيلة), “tribe” ^,. It is used for the first time around initially in the form of Cabeilles , then Cabaïls by the Western Explorateur S to designate the population Berbères of septentrional Algeria, while at the same time Arabic is already present on part of the country.

It is thus the term which the Européens used to indicate these mountain dwellers who bore different names according to the tribes to which they belonged. Also, it could as well indicate the Berber ones of Aurès, the Algerian west, and even of Morocco. One spoke then about Kabylie of Ouarsenis, or of Kabylies of Morocco. Only the historian Hérodote mentions the “ cabals ”, tribes libyques of Cyrénaïque, but none many the other authors Roman epoch, geographers or historians, make mention of it was the name of a very powerful tribe and old confederation made up of eight tribes organized in two confederations: At Betrun (At Yanni, At Budrar, At Drunk Akkach, At Wasio) and At Mengellat (At Mengellat, At Drunk Yusef, At Weqbil, At Attu).

However according to the professor Salem Chaker the term Zwawa / Zwawi used by the Arabic-speaking people should not be connected to agawa / igawawen but rather to azwaw / izwawen (first name kabyle and name of clan spread in Kabylie). Salem Chaker shows that Izwawen is the true name old and indigenous of Kabyles which “fills historical depression almost forgot their true name”. Moreover, in the Algerian West, Kabyles are always indicated under the name of Zwawa/Zwawi. Zwawa gave in French Zouave, since the first indigenous infantrymen were originating in this confederation.

Language

Old company

The Social organization of Kabyles, formerly stockbreeder S and Agriculteur S sedentaries was abundantly studied, in particular by the sociologist French Pierre Bourdieu. This model was largely modified by strong the emigration which upset the social reports/ratios, the urbanization, but one can trace the large features of the traditional company.

Each village formed tajmaât (“a kabyle assembly”), small or large organization according to the numerical importance of the village, similar to the République Démocratique. It was made up of all the men having reached the majority, and where in theory any citizen, whatever his socio-economic condition, could speak to present his ideas and to give an opinion at the time of the motions for a resolution. The old men, to whom one allotted the title of imgharen , because they were chief of family, or even of the alive line, profited from a particular respect and of a great listening, also one attached to their decisions in the jamaâ a greatter importance, and the democracy kabyle was connected sometimes more with a Gérontocratie. The amin there was named (“chief”) (or the ameqqran ; “old”, according to the areas) which was in charge of the good progress of the assembly and the application of her decisions. For largest tajmaât, the chief was sometimes assisted in his functions by a uqil and several you emen . The uqil had the responsibility for returned for tajmaât, and had in more one right to watch on the decisions of the chief. It belonged in general to a çof (“line”, alliance of several tribes) opposed to that of the chief, constituting a genuine counterweight with the Executive power, which ensured a certain political stability, more the legal high ranking authority, which defined the least failure and its sanction.

The code of honor protected “the house, the women, rifles”, and stipulated that the Meurtre was to be avenged by the blood ties (the authors of these acts were rejected community). The Filiation is patrilineal agnatic. The Patronyme of the common ancestor was transmitted. The tajmaât lived under the authority of the group, where the spirit of solidarity was extremely developed. For example the term tiwizi (“Solidarity”) indicated the collective activity consisting in helping a villager in one of his tasks like the collecting of the olives, to which it contributed directly or by nourishing the participants.

Appendices of the article

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