Berber people

Many believe that Arius, another early Christian theologian who was deemed a heretic by the Catholic Church, was of Libyan and Berber descent.

Another Berber cleric, Saint Adrian of Canterbury, travelled to England and played a significant role in its early medieval religious history.

Architecture

Tombs

Berber culture

Traditionally, men take care of livestock. They migrate by following the natural cycle of grazing, and seeking water and shelter. They are thus assured with an abundance of wool, cotton and plants used for dyeing. For their part, women look after the family and handicrafts - first for their personal use, and secondly for sale in the souqs in their locality. The Berber tribes traditionally weave kilims. The tapestry maintains the traditional appearance and distinctiveness of the region of origin of each tribe, which has in effect its own repertoire of drawings. The textile of plain weave is represented by a wide variety of stripes, and more rarely by geometrical patterns such as triangles and diamonds. Additional decorations such as sequins or fringes, are typical of Berber weave in Morocco. The nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle of the Berbers is very suitable for weaving kilims. The customs and traditions differ from one region to another.

The social structure of the Berbers is tribal. A leader is appointed to command the tribe. In the Middle Ages, many women had the power to govern, such as Kahina and Tazoughert Fatma in Aurès, Tin Hinan in Hoggar, Chemci in Aït Iraten, Fatma Tazoughert in the Aurès. Lalla Fatma N'Soumer was a Berber woman in Kabylia who fought against the French. The majority of Berber tribes currently have men as heads of the tribe. In Algeria, the el Kseur platform in Kabylia gives tribes the right to fine criminal offenders. In areas of Chaoui, tribal leaders enact sanctions against criminals. The Tuareg have a king who decides the fate of the tribe and is known as Amenokal. It is a very hierarchical society. The Mozabites are governed by the spiritual leaders of Ibadism. The Mozabites lead communal lives. During the crisis of Berriane, the heads of each tribe resolved the problem and began talks to end the crisis between the Maliki and Ibadite movements. In marriages, the man selects the woman, and depending on the tribe, the family often makes the decision. In comparison, in the Tuareg culture, the woman chooses her future husband. The rites of marriage are different for each tribe. Families are either patriarchal or matriarchal, according to the tribe.

Cuisine

Berber cuisine is a traditional cuisine which has evolved little over time. It differs from one area to another within North Africa.

Principal Berber foods are:

* Couscous, a pasta dish

Tajine, a dish made in various forms

Pastilla

bread made with traditional yeast

"Bouchiar" (fine yeastless wafers soaked in butter and natural honey)

"Bourjeje" (pancake containing flour, eggs, yeast and salt)

"Tahricht" (sheep offal: brains, tripe, lungs, and heart): these organ meats are rolled up with the intestines on an oak stick and cooked on embers in specially designed ovens. The meat is coated with butter to make it even tastier. This dish is served mainly at festivities.

Although they are the original inhabitants of North Africa, and in spite of numerous incursions by Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottomans and French, Berbers lived in very contained communities. Having been subject to limited external influences, these populations lived free from acculturating factors.

Some notable Berber dishes

Music

Berber music, the traditional music of North Africa, has a wide variety of regional styles. The best known are the Moroccan music, the popular Kabyle and chawi music of Algeria, and the widespread Tuareg music of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali.

The instruments used are the bendir (large drums) and Gambra (a lute), which accompanying songs and dances.

Algeria

Traditional Kabylian music consists of vocalists accompanied by a rhythm section, consisting of t'bel (tambourine) and bendir (frame drum), and a melody section, consisting of a ghaita (bagpipe) and ajouag (flute).

Kabylian music has been popular in France since the 1930s, when it was played at cafés. As it evolved, Western string instruments and Arab musical conventions, like large backing orchestras, were added.

By the time raï, a style of Algerian popular music, became popular in France and elsewhere in Europe, Kabylian artists began using less traditional instruments and formats. Hassen Zermani's all-electric Takfarinas and Abdelli's work with Peter Gabriel's Real World helped bring Kabylian music to new audiences, while the murder of Matoub Lounes inspired many Kabylians to rally around their popular musicians.

Morocco

There are three varieties of Berber folk music: village and ritual music, and the music performed by professional musicians. Village music is performed collectively for dancing, including ahidus and ahouach dances. Instruments include flutes and drums. These dances begin with a chanted prayer. Ritual music is performed at regular ceremonies to celebrate marriages and other important life events. Ritual music is also used as protection against evil spirits. Professional musicians (imdyazn) travel in groups of four, led by a poet (amydaz). The amydaz performs improvised poems, often accompanied by drums and rabab (a one-stringed fiddle), along with a bou oughanim who plays a double clarinet and acts as a clown for the group.

The Chleuh Berbers have professional musicians called rwais who play in ensembles consisting of lutes, rababs and cymbals, with any number of vocalist. The leader, or rayes, leads the choreography and music of the group. These performances begin with an instrumental astara on rabab, which also gives the notes of the melody which follows. The next phase is the amarg, or sung poetry, and then ammussu, a danced overture, tammust, an energetic song, aberdag, a dance, and finally the rhythmically swift tabbayt. There is some variation in the presentation of the order, but the astara always begins, and the tabbayt always ends.

Festivals

Fantasia

Imilchil Marriage Festival

Udayn n Acur

Genetics

The population genetics of North Africans has been heavily influenced by geography. The Sahara desert to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the North were important barriers to gene flow in prehistoric times. However Eurasia and Africa form a single land mass at the Suez. At the Straits of Gibraltar, Africa and Europe are separated by only . At periods of low sea-levels, such as during a glacial maximum, islands that are currently submerged would appear in the Mediterranean and possibly in between the Gibraltar straits. These may have encouraged humans to "island hop" between Africa and Europe. During wetter phases of the Sahara, Sub-Saharan Africans would have expanded into North Africa. West Asian populations would have also been attracted to a wet Sahara. West Asian populations could also migrate into Africa via the coastal regions of the Mediterranean.

As a result of these geographic influences, the genetic profile of Berber populations is a complex mosaic of European, Sub-Saharan African and West Asian influences. Though North Africa has experienced gene-flow from the surrounding regions, it has also experienced long periods of genetic isolation, allowing a distinctive genetic markers to evolve in Berber populations.

Current scientific debate is concerned with determining the relative contributions of different periods of gene flow to the current gene pool of North Africans. Anatomically modern humans are known to have been present in North Africa during the Upper Paleolithic 45,000 years ago as attested by the Aterian culture. With no apparent continuity, 22,000 years ago, the Aterian was succeeded by the Iberomaurusian culture which shared similarities with Iberian cultures. The Iberomaurusian was succeeded by the Capsian, a pre-neolithic culture. About 9,000 years ago the Saharan entered a wet phase which attracted Neolithic peoples from the Near East and Sub-Saharan Africans. In historic times, North Africa was occupied by several peoples including Phoenicians (814–146 BCE), Romans (146 BCE–439 CE), Vandals (439–534 CE),and Byzantines (534–647 CE). In the 7th Century a migration of Bedouin peoples from the Arabian peninsula brought Arabic languages into North Africa.

Y-chromosome

Haplogroup E is the most prevalent haplogroup amongst the Berbers accounting for up to 87 percent of Y-chromosomes among some Berber populations. Haplogroup E is thought to have emerged in East-Africa

Eurasian haplogroups such as Haplogroup J and Haplogroup R1 have also been observed at moderate frequencies. A thorough study by Arredi et al. (2004) which analyzed populations from Algeria concludes that the North African pattern of Y-chromosomal variation (including both J1 and E3b2 main haplogroups) is largely of Neolithic origin, which suggests that the Neolithic transition in this part of the world was accompanied by demic diffusion of Berber–speaking pastoralists from the Middle East

E1b1b1b (E-M81); formerly E3b1b, E3b2

E1b1b1b (E-M81) is the most common Y chromosome haplogroup in North Africa, dominated by its sub-clade E-M183. It is thought to have originated in North Afric. 5,600 years ago. The parent clade E1b1b originated in East Africa. Colloquially referred to as the Berber marker for its prevalence among Mozabite, Middle Atlas, Kabylian and other Amazigh groups, E-M81 is also quite common among North African groups. It reaches frequencies of up to 80 percent in some parts of the Maghreb. This includes the Saharawish for whose men reports that approximately 76 percent are M81+.

This haplogroup is also found of some amounts in the Iberian Peninsula, probably due to ancient migrations during the Islamic, Roman, and Carthaginian empires, as well as the influence of Sephardic Jews. In Iberia generally it is more common than E1b1b1a (E-M78), unlike in the rest of Europe, and as a result this E-M81 is found throughout Latin America and among Hispanic men in USA. As an exceptional case in Europe, this sub-clade of E1b1b1 has also been observed at 40 percent the Pasiegos from Cantabria. Maca-Meyer et al. 2003 analyze the "autochthonous North African lineage U6" in mtDNA, and conclude that:

:The most probable origin of the proto-U6 lineage was the Near East. Around 30,000 years ago it spread to North Africa where it represents a signature of regional continuity. Subgroup U6a reflects the first African expansion from the Maghreb returning to the east in Paleolithic times. Derivative clade U6a1 signals a posterior movement from East Africa back to the Maghreb and the Near East. This migration coincides with the probable Afroasiatic linguistic expansion.

A genetic study by Fadhlaoui-Zid et al. 2004 argues concerning certain exclusively North African haplotypes that "expansion of this group of lineages took place around 10,500 years ago in North Africa, and spread to neighbouring population", and apparently that a specific Northwestern African haplotype, U6, probably originated in the Near East 30,000 years ago but has not been highly preserved and accounts for 6-8 percent in southern Moroccan Berbers, 18 percent in Kabyles and 28 percent in Mozabites. Rando et al. 1998 (as cited by ) "detected female-mediated gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa to NW Africa" amounting to as much as 21.5 percent of the mtDNA sequences in a sample of NW African populations; the amount varied from 82 percent (Tuaregs) to 4 percent (Rifains). This north-south gradient in the sub-Saharan contribution to the gene pool is supported by Esteban et al. Nevertheless, individual Berber communities display a considerably high mtDNA heterogeneity among them. The Berbers of Jerba Island, located in South Eastern Tunisia, display an 87 percent Eurasian contribution with no U6 haplotypes, while the Kesra of Tunisia, for example, display a much higher proportion of typical sub-Saharan mtDNA haplotypes (49 percent), as compared to the Zriba (8 percent). According to the article, "The North African patchy mtDNA landscape has no parallel in other regions of the world and increasing the number of sampled populations has not been accompanied by any substantial increase in our understanding of its phylogeography. Available data up to now rely on sampling small, scattered populations, although they are carefully characterized in terms of their ethnic, linguistic, and historical backgrounds. It is therefore doubtful that this picture truly represents the complex historical demography of the region rather than being just the result of the type of samplings performed so far."

Additionally, recent studies have discovered a close mitochondrial link between Berbers and the Saami of Scandinavia which confirms that the Franco-Cantabrian refuge area of southwestern Europe was the source of late-glacial expansions of hunter-gatherers that repopulated northern Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum and reveals a direct maternal link between those European hunter-gatherer populations and the Berbers. With regard to Mozabite Berbers, one-third of Mozabite Berber mtDNAs have a Near Eastern ancestry, probably having arrived in North Africa ∼50,000 years ago, and one-eighth have an origin in sub-Saharan Africa. Europe appears to be the source of many of the remaining sequences, with the rest having arisen either in Europe or in the Near East."

According to the most recent and thorough study about Berber mtDNA from Coudray et al. 2008 that analysed 614 individuals from 10 different regions (Morocco (Asni, Bouhria, Figuig, Souss), Algeria (Mozabites), Tunisia (Chenini-Douiret, Sened, Matmata, Jerba) and Egypt (Siwa)) the results may be summarized as follows :

* Total Eurasian lineages (H, HV, R0, J, T, U (without U6), K, N1, N2, X) : 50-90 percent

Total sub-Saharan lineages (L0, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5) : 3-45 percent

Total North African lineages (U6, M1) : 0-30 percent

The Berber mitochondrial pool is characterized by an "overall high frequency of Western Eurasian haplogroups, a somehow lower frequency of sub-Saharan L lineages, and a significant (but differential) presence of North African haplogroups U6 and M1". And according to Cherni et al. 2008 "the post-Last glacial maximum expansion originating in Iberia not only led to the resettlement of Europe but also of North Africa".

Until recently, some papers suggested that the distribution of the main L haplogroups in North Africa was mainly due to trans-Saharan slave trade. However in September 2010, a thorough study about Berber mtDNA by Frigi et al. concluded that most of L haplogroups were much older and introduced by an ancient African gene flow around 20,000 years ago.

Autosomal DNA

Berbers display a heterogeneous autosomal profile but in general autosomal markers are predominantly European or Eurasian with a minor but significant Sub-Saharan African component. As a result, Berber populations possess a genetic profile that is intermediate between Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans. Analysis of HLA markers has shown that Berbers have a close genetic relationship with Mediterranean Europeans but also possess some characteristics of Sub-Saharan Africans.

Genetic influence

Y-chromosome DNA

The general parent Y-chromosome Haplogroup E1b1b (formerly known as E3b), which originated in either the Horn of Africa or the Near East, is by far the most common clade in North and Northeast Africa, and is also common throughout the majority of Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean and South Eastern Europe. E1b1b reaches its highest concentration in Greece and the Balkan region, but also enjoys a significant presence in other regions such as Hungary, Italy, France, Iberia and Austria. . The findings of this latter study contradict a more thorough analysis Y-chromosome analysis of the Iberian peninsula according to which haplogroup E1b1b1b surpasses frequencies of 10 percent in Southern Spain. The study points only to a very limited influence from northern Africa and the Middle East both in historic and prehistoric times. The absence of microsatellite variation suggests a very recent arrival from North Africa consistent with historical exchanges across the Mediterranean during the period of Islamic expansion, namely of Berber populations.

Haplotype V(p49/TaqI), a characteristic North African haplotype, may be also found in the Iberian peninsula, and a decreasing North-South cline of frequency clearly establishes a gene flow from North Africa towards Iberia which is also consistent with Moorish presence in the peninsula. This North-South cline of frequency of halpotype V is to be observed throughout the Mediterranean region, ranging from frequencies of close to 30 percent in southern Portugal to around 10 percent in southern France. Similarly, the highest frequency in Italy is to be found in the southern island of Sicily (28 percent).

A wide-ranging study (published 2007) using 6,501 unrelated Y-chromosome samples from 81 populations found that: "Considering both these E-M78 sub-haplogroups (E-V12, E-V22, E-V65) and the E-M81 haplogroup, the contribution of northern African lineages to the entire male gene pool of Iberia (barring Pasiegos), continental Italy and Sicily can be estimated as 5.6 percent, 3.6 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively."

According to the most recent and thorough study about Iberia by Adams et al. 2008 that analysed 1,140 unrelated Y-chromosome samples in Iberia, a much more important contribution of northern African lineages to the entire male gene pool of Iberia was found : "mean North African admixture is 10.6 percent, with wide geographical variation, ranging from zero in Gascony to 21.7 percent in Northwest Castile".

Mitochondrial DNA

Genetic studies on Iberian populations also show that North African mitochondrial DNA sequences (haplogroup U6) and sub-Saharan sequences (Haplogroup L), although present at only low levels, are still at much higher levels than those generally observed elsewhere in Europe. Haplogroup U6 have also been detected in Sicily and South Italy at very low levels. It happens also to be a characteristic genetic marker of the Saami populations of Northern Scandinavia. It is difficult to ascertain that U6's presence is the consequence of Islam's expansion into Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly because it is more frequent in the north of the Iberian Peninsula rather than in the south. In smaller numbers it is also attested too in the British Isles, again in its northern and western borders. It may be a trace of a prehistoric neolithic/megalithic expansion along the Atlantic coasts from North Africa, perhaps in conjunction with seaborne trade. One subclade of U6 is particularly common among Canarian Spaniards as a result of native Guanche (proto-Berber) ancestry.

Genetic influences on Latin America

As a consequence of Spanish and Portuguese colonization of Latin America, E-M81 is also found throughout Latin America and among Hispanic men in USA.

See also

Amazigh Moroccan Democratic Party

Ancient Libya

Arabized Berber

Barbary Coast

Barbary pirate

Berber Jews

Berber languages

Berber mythology

Berber pantheon

Berberism

Guanches, an indigenous people in the Canary Islands.

Kabylie, a coastal Berber area, inhabited by Kabyles.

List of Imazighen

Masmouda, ancestors of Atlas Chleuhs

Moors

Rif, a coastal Berber area, inhabited by Riffis.

Senhaja, ancestors of Souss Chleuhs.

Sidi Brahim

Tamazgha, Berber name for North Africa.

Tuareg, a Saharan Berber group.

Zenata, ancestors of Riffis and Chaouis.

References

(as cited in Michael Harrison's work, 1974.)

Hoffman, Katherine E., and Susan Gilson Miller, eds. Berbers and Others: Beyond Tribe and Nation in the Maghrib (Indiana University Press; 2010) 225 pages; scholarly studies of identity, creativity, history, and activism

Notes

External links

Amazigh/Berber Culture

The New Mass Media and the Shaping of Amazigh Identity.

Number Systems and Calendars of the Berber Populations of Grand Canary and Tenerife.

Flags of the World -- Berbers/Imazighen.

Imedyazen cultural association (in Berber).

The Genographic Project: Maps ancient human movements via genetic markers

World Haplogroups Maps

Category:Berber people Category:Indigenous peoples of North Africa Category:History of North Africa Category:History of Numidia Category:Ethnic groups in Morocco Category:Ethnic groups in Mauritania Category:Ethnic groups in Algeria Category:Ethnic groups in Libya Category:Ethnic groups in Tunisia Category:Ethnic groups in Western Sahara Category:Berber dynasties Category:Berber Category:Islamic history Category:Maghreb Category:Ethnic groups in the Arab League Category:Muslim communities