THE CULT OF SAINTS IN NORTHWESTERN TUNISIA An analysis of contemporary pilgrimage structures Part 2 (chs. 6-9, references) Wim van Binsbergen |
Part I:
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1. INTRODUCTION
2. REGIONAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
3. SEGMENTATION IN KHUMIRIYA TODAY
4. SHRINES IN KHUMIRIYA
5. SAINTS AND THE LIVING
Part II:
6. SEGMENTATION AND TYPES OF ZYARA
7. LOCAL ZYARA IN THE
VALLEY OF SIDI MHAMMAD
8. ORIGINAL AND PERSONAL ZYARA IN
THE VILLAGE OF SIDI MHAMMAD
9. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
6. SEGMENTATION AND TYPES OF ZYARA
The principal set of people who
have a definite relationship with a particular saint are the
actual members (i.e. inhabitants) of the territorial segment with
which that saint is associated. All these people, male and
female, must partake in the routines of the saintly cult,
including dedication of meals, at least twice-annual zyara, and
observance of the saints festival.
Male members of the segment are not under formal obligations of
zyara, although many of them do visit, as individuals, the
shrines, and attend the festivals, of the major saints in their
own valley and adjacent valleys. Some men are involved in the
saintly cult as ritual specialist: as shrine-keepers, and as
members of the ecstatic cult in whose songs local saints feature
along with international saints, and demons. for most purposes,
men rely on the women in their households and compounds to deal
with the local saints. Yet men who intend to definitively settle
elsewhere, in the realm of a different saint, will find their
plans crossed by dreams and omens through which the saints
protests against their absconding.
Women, through their dedication of meals and their zyara, carry
the bulk of the saintly cult in Khumiriya.
This ritual involvement of women is intimately linked to the
marriage pattern. Marriage is virilocal: both according to the
rule and in c. 95% of actual practice. and since no woman marries
into the household in which she was born, every marriage involves
a womans crossing of segmentary boundaries at least at the
lowest level of segmentation (in the rare case she marries within
the same compound). Like other Islamic societies, and explicit
rule as to the preference of agnatic endogamy exists in
Khumiriya. demographic processes, the dynamics of marital
alliance, the essentially bilateral kinship system hiding under
the patrilineal idiom, and the intergenerational transfer of
property, however, are much more complex than that they could be
summarized, at the analytical level by the participants
ideology of patrilateral parallel-cousin marriage. This is not
the place to present my very extensive data on this point. Let it
suffice to say that roughly 50% of contemporary marriages involve
partners belonging to different villages, each with their own
distinct set of local shrines and saints. A village-exogamous
marriage means that a woman leaves her original set of
village-level local shrines behind and adopts a new set, that of
her husbands female consanguineal relatives. it is part of
a womans extensive incorporation into her husbands
segment[9] that she fully adopts the shrines
of that group. Within the compound, hamlet and neighbourhood,
elder women coordinate food production, food processing, water
hauling and firewood collection. From these female leaders the
in-marrying woman will learn about the identity and relative
importance of the segments shrines and saints. She will
soon dedicate some of her household meals to these saints, and
join the other women in collective zyara to the shrines. However,
she will not as a rule give up her relationship with the shrines
in her original segment. Although a woman will not often leave
the immediate environment of the village for the purpose of
visiting relatives, the hospital, the market, or diviners, she
has an unalienable right to visit her original shrines, and thus
her segment of origin and her relatives there, twice a year.
A married woman is involved in two complementary sets of
relationship with saints which mirrors, and in fact
sustains, her involvement in both her original segment and that
of her husband. The picture is further complicated by the
relative nature of segmentation. The greater the segmentary
distance a woman crosses for marriage, the more different the two
sets of shrines will be. If she marries in a different village
within the same valley, the two sets will overlap in that the
valleys main shrine and festival will be part of both sets;
in that case marriage will only add a few lesser shrines of her
husbands segment (at the village neighbourhood, hamlet and
compound level) to the womans pre-existing set. With
intra-village local endogamy (c. 50% of all marriages) the
differences will be even less significant, and in fact the set of
shrines before and after marriage may entirely coincide. The
differences are far more conspicuous in the case of a marriage
linking people from different valleys or even chiefdoms. But the
principle remain the same throughout.
thus every Khumiri woman has zyara obligations vis-ŕ-vis the
local shrines associated with the territorial segment (or better:
nested hierarchy of segments at various levels) to which she
belongs at a given point in time; for descriptive purposes, this
type of zyara will be called local zyara. In addition, all women
who have migrated from their segment of birth, i.e. mainly in the
context of marriage, retain zyara obligations vis-a-vis the local
shrines in that segment; this type of zyara will be called
original zyara. For the sake of completeness, we should not
overlook the fact that marriage is the main, but not the
exclusive occasion for a woman to adopt a new set of zyara
obligations: when the household of which she is a dependent
member takes up residence elsewhere, a similar situation obtains
regardless of her marital status. However, such cases are so rare
as compared with the virtual universality of marriage among
Khumiri women, that they require no separate treatment.
Local zyara comes with actual membership of (i.e. residence in) a
territorial segment, and unites all adult women of that segment
under a female leader. The latter co-ordinates the collective
zyara of the segments women to the local shrines, as part
of her general tasks of female leadership. In fact these
collective visits to local shrines present an amazing spectacle
of territorial segmentation in action. At the occasion of the
festival of a valleys or villages main shrine, the
various female leaders of segments will have agreed on a time for
collective zyara. Compound by compound, hamlet by hamlet,
neighbourhood by neighbourhood, one will see small groups of
women in their best clothes converge along the village path, and
team up on their way to the shrine, only to break up again,
segment-wise, on their return, Alternatively, the fact that
virtually every woman in a compound, hamlet and neighbourhood
derives obligations of original zyara from her own, unique life
history, endows her with an individuality in the religious sphere
which she will normally be allowed to maintain despite strong
social pressures towards incorporation in her husbands
segment. the frequent attribution of misfortune to irate,
neglected saints suggests however both the practice of individual
shedding of original zyara obligations, and the deep-lying
tensions in the marital and inter-generational sphere that would
seem to attend the incorporation process.
Personal zyara to major regional saints in the context of illness
or infertility results, finally, in the third type of
womens zyara obligations in Khumiriya. For here again the
norm applies that a living human cannot at his or her own
initiative terminate a relationship with a saint once entered
into. For a variety of reasons (which seem to include female
under-nutrition; a very low marital age of women before marital
legislation was revised in the 1960s; and a repressive sexual
culture instilling profound fears and sexual inhibitions in young
people of both sexes) many Khumiri women are recorded to have
suffered from impaired fertility in the first years of their
marriage. In order to remedy this complaint, women would often
resort to pilgrimage to distant shrines of regional saints
outside the set of shrines falling under local or original zyara
obligations. The personal relationship between a woman and a
regional saint invoked for reproductive troubles would ideally
last a lifetime; in later years, as a woman would take her
daughters and daughters-in-law with her on this personal zyara,
the younger generation would automatically inherit this
relationship, even though the regional shrine would be too
distant to be listed among the territorial segments local
zyara obligations.
Numerous are the cases when material misfortune, illness and even
death are attributed (via various techniques of divination) to
irate saints revenging humans lack of respect, breach of
promises, failure to dedicate meals and make pious visits, or
neglect of duties vis-ŕ-vis one saint while honouring the
expectations of another saint. since Khumiri saints are shown to
embody, on the one hand, concepts of intra-kin intimacy and
inter-generational relations, on the other hand a structure of
complementary opposition of segments, it will be obvious
even without a discussion of specific cases that the
social, mental and psycho-somatic dramas enacted in such cases
reveal deeply-rooted tensions and contradictions within the
Khumiri social process and symbolic order. However, an
explanation of misfortune like the Khumiri one would represent a
welcome escape clause in any religious system: given a certain
degree of recognized non-observance of rules and of opportunism[10] among the living humans involved,
the supernatural entities invoked are free to honour or to ignore
human requests without succumbing to their professional disease:
credibility gap. In fact, not all Khumiri women attend to their
original and personal zyara obligations with equal zeal; the
factors apparently determining this variation in religious
behaviour will be discussed below.
In modern anthropology, paradigmatic consistency and elegance
have become reasons for healthy mistrust. Therefore, the above
generalized description of the saintly cult, and particularly
of zyara, in contemporary Khumiriya needs to be substantiated
with evidence on actual religious behaviour as stipulated by the
models and rules described here. We find ourselves here in the
somewhat exceptional situation that such evidence is, in fact,
available, and that it corroborates the generalized description
with amazing precision.
7. LOCAL ZYARA
IN THE VALLEY OF SIDI MHAMMAD
In the remaining sections of this
chapter I shall describe the patterns of local, original and
personal zyara as found among the adult women inhabiting the
villages of Sidi Mhammad and Mayziya, in the valley of Sidi
Mhammad.
The data were collected in 1968, at a point in my field-work when I had sufficiently mastered the principles of Khumiri popular religion and society to phrase my questions properly; and when my stay in the village of Sidi Mhammad had generated a sufficient amount of trust and rapport to allow me to systematically interview the majority of the adult female population in both villages. In Sidi Mhammad, of the total population of 42 resident adult women, 35 (= 83%) were thus interviewed. The 17% non-response could be shown to form an a-select sample from the total population of 42, with regard to important background variables: relative economic position of their household; number of years of their marriage had lasted; geographical distance across which their marriage had been contracted. (Table 1).
(a) duration of marriage (years)§) | |||||||||||||||||
|
|
2 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
16 |
18 |
20 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
28 |
30 |
33 |
38 |
total |
number of women |
in response group |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
13 |
in non-response
group |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Mann-Whitney U-test,
corrected for ties: z = 1.13; p = .13
§) the analysis is limited to women resident in the village of
Sidi Mhammad but born in a different village
|
|
(b) distance across which
marriage was contracted (km) |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
.0 |
.1 |
.2 |
.3 |
.4 |
.5 |
.6 |
.7 |
1.1 |
1.3 |
1.4 |
1.8 |
2.3 |
2.5 |
2.6 |
3.0 |
3.5 |
6.2 |
7.8 |
10.2 |
total |
number of women |
in response group |
0 |
7 |
6 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
35 |
in non-response group |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
|
|
|
Mann-Whitney U-test,
corrected for ties: z = -1.36; p = .09 [ check bottom row table !
]
|
|
(c) relative
economic position of household*) |
|||
|
|
poor |
medium |
wealthy |
total |
number of women |
in response group |
21 |
11 |
3 |
35 |
in non-response
group |
2 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
Mann-Whitney U-test,
corrected for ties: z = 1.11; p .13
*) one woman was omittted from the analysis since the wealth of
her household could not be assessed with certainty
Table 1. Validating the sample of women
My data on Mayziya are less
complete: they adequately cover local zyara, but show gaps with
regard to original and personal zyara. The analysis of the latter
two types (section 8) will exclusively be based on Sidi Mhammad
data.
Zyara is public behaviour and moreover a source of prestige and
baraka. It is therefore discussed without reticence, even when
the interviewer is a young male foreigner. The interview data
were checked against: observational data concerning the various
types of zyara; systematically elicited statements about the
zyara behaviour of neighbours; and many accidental statements
uttered during everyday conservations or open-ended interviews.
The correspondence between these data proved to be almost 100%.
Moreover the data show great internal consistency, particularly
in the extent to which the responses and observational data on
local zyara converge for the several women of each segment. This
convergence could hardly be a research artifact, because when I
collected the data I was not even beginning to realize that
Khumiri social organization could be described with a model of
territorial segmentation. For all these reasons I consider the
data to be of good quality, and amenable to such non-parametric
statistical tests as I shall perform upon them.[11]
The valley of Sidi Mhammad stretches from south to north along
the Wad al-Kabir, a river whose tributaries have their sources at
the highest peaks of Khumiriya, and which flows into the
Mediterranean near the town of Tabarka, c. 15 km north of Sidi
Mhammad.
Diagram 2. The wider surroundings of the valley of Sidi Mhammad (click on thumbnail to enlarge)
Diagram 2 shows the wider surroundings of the valley. This
diagram conveys the remarkably small geographical scale of the
phenomena at hand. The valley of Sidi Mhammad has an area of
about 10 km2,
and comprises only six villages: Sidi Mhammad, Mayziya, Tracaya-sud,
Tracaya-bidh, Fidh al-Missay and Raml al-cAtrus; together these
villages comprise c. 600 inhabitants. Movements between villages
id mainly on foot, and here the mountainous terrain imposes
severe constraints. Thus from Sidi Mhammad it takes people half a
day to reach the major regional shrine of Sidi cAbd
bi-Jamal, a distance of barely 10 km as the crow flies. Such a
distance forms in fact the effective maximal radius for most
purposes of inter-village contacts, including zyara and marriage.
While illustrating this point, Table 2 suggests that structures
of zyara, and the affinal networks created by marriage, together
constitute on relational region, of the sort which Meillassoux
has called a marriage field (aire matrimoniale, Meillassoux 1964:
11 andz passim).
|
range (km) |
median (km) |
distance across
which marriages are contracted |
.1 7.8 |
. 45 |
distance across
which shrines are visited (all types of zyara
combined) |
.0 10.1 |
. 55 |
Table 2. A
comparison of geographical distances across which women resident
in the village of Sidi Mhammad visit shrines and across which the
marriages of these women have been contracted.
Like Sidi cAbd Allah bi-Jamal, Sidi Mhammad is a regional saint.
The latters twice-annual festival lasts for several days
and nights. In addition to the people of the valley itself, who
are under obligations of local zyara, the festival attracts, from
all over Khumiriya, scores of women who are under obligation of
original or personal zyara, and moreover scores of male pilgrims,
as well as musicians, showmen, ecstatic dancers, butchers, and
peddlers in sweets, candles, incense, haberdashery, etc. while
the saint Sidi Mhammad is locally represented by no less than
four shrines including two qubbas, he is by no means the only
saint of the valley. Diagram 3 shows, in their relative position
vis-ŕ-vis the dwelling houses, the location of the eighteen
shrines that are found in the immediate environment of the
villages of Sidi Mhammad and Mayziya alone. Table 3 summarizes
the names and physical characteristics of these shrines.
A minority of the local shrines are surrounded by cemeteries, and a segments right to bury its dead in a particular cemetery, i.e. near a particular shrine, is an important expression of the segmentary structure. However, this aspect is not dealt with in my present argument, which concentrates on zyara. Of the shrines listed in table 3, the numbers 1 and 8 are surrounded by cemeteries that are still in use, whereas abandoned cemeteries are found around the shrines 5 and 7, as well as several hundred meters south of 9 and 13.
Diagram 3. Shrines in the valley of Sidi Mhammad (click on thumbnail to enlarge)
1 |
Sidi Mhammad
al-Kabir |
qubba |
2 |
Sidi Mhammad
al-Wilda |
qubba |
3 |
Sidi Mhammad
(al-Wilda) |
kurbi |
4 |
Sidi Mhammad
(al-Wilda) |
kurbi |
5 |
Sidi Bu-Qasbaya
al-Kabir |
mzara |
6 |
Sidi Bu-Qasbaya
al-Wilda |
mzara |
7 |
Sidi Bu-Qasbaya
al-Wilda |
mzara |
8 |
Sidi Rhuma |
mzara |
9 |
Sidi Bu-Naqa |
mzara |
10 |
Aisha |
mzara |
11 |
Mzara cAin Raml |
mzara |
12 |
Hasharat al-Brik |
mzara |
13 |
Sidi Hammad |
mzara |
14 |
Sidi Bel-Ahsin |
mzara |
15 |
Jadda Massauda |
mzara |
16 |
cAli cAbu
l-Qassim |
mzara |
17 |
Sidi Bu-Kharuba |
mzara |
18 |
Hasharat al-Fras |
mzara |
Table 3. Names and physical
characteristic of shrines in the villages of Sidi Mhammad and
Mayziya.
Moreover, many of the saints listed in table 3 have shrines
elsewhere, outside the villages of Sidi Mhammad and Mayziya;
those distant shrines are not listed here. The local zyara
pattern in those two villages is confined to the eighteen shrines
of table 3.[12]
In order to assess whether the pattern of local zyara as found in
these two villages is in fact governed by territorial
segmentation, we have to go through a number of steps. Firth, the
dwelling-houses, representing the lowest level of segmentation,
have to be clustered into higher-level segments, according to
their location, to the visible boundaries by which they are
surrounded, and to the distribution of utilitarian
characteristics attributes (threshing-floors, springs, mens
assemblies) over the clusters thus formed. The outcome of this
exercise is shown in diagram 4.
Diagram 4. The spatial structure of segmentation in the valley of Sidi Mhammad (click on thumbnail to enlarge)
The following step is the tracing of the specific pattern of
local zyara which obtains in each of the territorial segments
thus distinguished. A problem arising at this point is that there
are far fewer local shrines than territorial segments. The choice
is further limited by the fact that not all shrines are available
in the same degree as additional, religious attributes of
segments. For two adjacent lower-level territorial segments,
which are complementary in that they both form part of a higher
segment at the next hierarchical level, it would be impossible to
express their segmentary opposition by differential patronage, of
some very minor shrine situated at a considerable distance, say
at the other end of the village: the catchment area of that
shrine would be too small to reach as far as these segments.
Similarly, these segments could not distinguish themselves by
differential patronage of the villages or valleys
main shrine, for that shrine would already function as the
additional, religious attribute of a higher segment encompassing
both lower-level segments.
Two devices combine so as to solve these dilemmas. First
non-patronage, even of a nearby shrine or combination of nearby
shrines, can mark a territorial segment just as much as positive
local zyara. Secondly, segments can distinguish among themselves
not only through the selection or non-selection of local shrines
in a particular combination, but also through differences in
frequency with which the selected shrines are actually visited.
Twice-annual zyara constitutes a minimal frequency for any
shrine; four times a year is an average frequency for shrines
that are visited with more than minimal zeal. As marking devices,
non-patronage and differential frequency dramatically increase
the number of possible combinations given a limited number of
shrines; yet it must be admitted that differential frequency
introduces a non-discrete element that somewhat spoils the neat,
digital combinatory logic of the segmentation model.
These devices are clearly at work in the pattern of local zyara in the village of Sidi Mhammad and Mayziya, as shown in diagram 5.
Diagram 5. The spatial structure of local zyara in the valley of Sidi Mhammad (click on thumbnail to enlarge)
Here for all compounds of both
villages the associated patterns of local zyara are shown, on the
basis of the interview and observational data discussed above.
Combining the information of diagrams 4 and 5 results in diagram
6, which presents the segments differential local zyara
patterns in the familiar dendrogram format.
Diagram 6. Patterns of local zyara (pilgrimage) in the village of Sidi Mhammad as an expression of segmentation (click on thumbnail to enlarge)
A number of conclusions can be based on diagram 6. Clearly,
territorial segmentation provides the key to existing structures
of local zyara. Territorial segments, whose existence is marked
by visible boundaries and the distribution of utilitarian
characteristic attributes, distinguish themselves in the
religious sphere by the veneration of specific combination of
local shrines, in specific frequencies. What emanates clearly
from diagram 6 is the fact that complementary opposition in
segmentation only refers to one level at the same time,
irrespective of the distribution of distinctive features at
higher or lower levels. Thus segments 1.1.2 and 1.2.2 can afford
to be both associated with shrines 1, 2 and 3, which both
segments visit frequently. There is no direct complementary
opposition between these two segments, since they belong to
different higher level segments (1.1 and 1.2 respectively), and
the difference between the later is marked by shrines 7 and 11.
The complementary segment of 1.1.2 is 1.1.1. (this difference is
marked by frequent visiting of shrines 7 and 11, as against
shrines 1, 2 and 3); the complementary segment of 1.2.2. is
1.2.1, with differences being marked by frequent visiting of
shrines 5 and 6 as against 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The
inclusion of complementary segments in higher-level segments
renders the combinatory logic of characteristic attributes more
complicated, but does not destroy it.
However, while the model fits empirical reality amazingly well,
the fit is, of course, not 100%. Not all complementary segments
at all levels are marked by differential local zyara. Thus the
sub-neighbourhoods 1.2.2.3, 1.3.1.1, 1.3.1.2 and 1.3.2.1 have an
identical pattern of local zyara.
Moreover it turns out that, insofar local zyara is concerned,
three and not two segmentary levels are to be distinguished
between compound level and village level; this is particularly
the case in the village of Sidi Mhammad. Environmental conditions
and the ongoing dynamics of territorial segmentation can explain
these deviations from the simpler model. Permanent water supplies
are scarcer in Sidi Mhammad than in Mayziya: in the former
village there are 9 to 17 households to one permanent water
source, against only 8 to 9 in Mayziya. Hence the spring-defined
neighbourhoods are in fact considerably larger in Sidi Mhammad
than in Mayziya, and begin to approach villages. This process of
segmentation also manifests itself in the erection of a separate
mens assembly in the southern part of the village of Sidi
Mhammad (super-neighbourhood 1.1, called Qaca-Ramal), and in the
growing expression of antagonism between people from that part
and the rest of the village. The complex historical background,
involving competition between rival clans, aspirations of
political leadership, the vicissitudes of marriage alliances, the
effects of establishment of a colonists farm near
Qaca-Ramal, and the differential use of cemeteries cannot be
elaborated upon here (Van Binsbergen 1971, 1980a, 1980b).
The ongoing segmentation process also explains the ambiguous
position sub-neighbourhood 2.1.1.1 occupies in the dendrogram.
But here we encounter not fission (as in the Qaca-Ramal case),
but fusion: the segment in question, straddling the boundary
between the two villages, historically forms part of Mayziya, but
its members have established strong ties of marriage and
clientship with their present neighbours, the administrative
chiefs family; the latters residence in the village
of Sidi Mhammad dates back to the 1910s.[13]
Rather than upsetting the model of territorial segmentation as
governing local zyara, these deviations show that model to be
dynamic, and capable of responding to the realities of the social
and ecological process. Let us now turn to the quantitative data
concerning original and personal zyara: forms of religious
behaviour that cut across, instead of express, the pattern of
territorial segmentation.
8. ORIGINAL AND PERSONAL ZYARA
IN THE VILLAGE OF SIDI MHAMMAD
Turning now to non-local zyara, we
should first assess the relative incidence of the three types of
zyara.
The 35 systematically interviewed women in Sidi Mhammad observed
between them 232 zyara obligations vis-ŕ-vis shrines in
Khumiriya. Of these, 219 (= 94%) involved local zyara. Each woman
observed an average of 6.6. zyara obligations, the total range
stretching from 5 to 10. Of this average of 6.6., an average 6.3
involved local zyara (range 5-8, as can be read from diagram 6).
The fact that many shrines are associated with the same saint,
means that the number of observed zyara obligations vis-ŕ-vis
different saints is lower than that vis-ŕ-vis shrines. The women
of the sample have an average of 4.1. (range 3-7) observed zyara
relations with saints, out of which an average of 3.7 (range 3-5)
involve saints associated with the local segments these women
belong to at the several hierarchical levels. These data on zyara
relationships can be converted into figures on actual pious
visits made, by taking differential frequency into account. Per
period of six months, the women of the sample make 342 zyaras
between them, of which 329 (= 96%) are local zyaras, 10 (= 3%)
are original zyaras, and only 4 (= 1%) are personal zyaras. These
figures must be considered estimates. Yet they convincingly
demonstrate the overwhelming preponderance of local zyara, as
stipulated by the structure of territorial segmentation, over the
non-local forms that cut across the segmentary structure.
It is virtually impossible for a woman to resist the strong
social pressure and the supernatural sanctions that prompt her
participation in the collective local zyara of the segment in
which she is resident. Original and personal zyara, however, are
a more individual matter, and here observance of existing
obligations shows considerable variation.
The positive data on personal zyara are too limited to allow
statistical analysis. The three women concerned are between forty
and sixty years old. They have exceptionally high prestige and
power because of their age, their very close kinship relations
with administrative chiefs, and the wealth of their households.
Two are effective female leaders of their neighbourhoods, and as
such co-ordinate local zyara. Their maintaining of personal zyara
relations with distant shrines, nearly all of which are of
regional importance, adds to their local prestige, and renders
further independence to their religious and social behaviour as
individuals. Moreover, they would hardly be able to fulfil their
personal zyara obligations if their social position did not
provide them with the financial means to undertake a long
journey, and with an extensive regional network of social
contacts on which they can rely during that journey and at the
distant shrine. The data strongly suggest that many other women
in the sample contracted personal zyara obligations at some time
in their lives, but had to drop them because of their less
exalted social position within their segments of residence.
Original zyara is a somewhat more common phenomenon. Here we can
draw on two sets of data: data on the women resident in Sidi
Mhammad; and on the set of women who originate from that village
and who (according to the converging evidence of observational
data and interviews) either observe, or fail to observe, their
obligations of original zyara vis-ŕ-vis the regional shrines of
Sidi Mhammad.
Since about 50% of all marriages are contracted within the same
village, and since (cf. diagram 6) not all segments within a
village differ as to the set of shrines to which local zyara is
directed (although frequencies of zyara tend to differ), not all
women in the sample acquired obligations of original zyara at
marriage. In fact, only 14 women in the sample did so (= 40%);
for the remaining 60%, local zyara and original zyara entirely
coincide.
Of these 14 women, 7 (= 50%) observe their original zyara
obligations, while 7 (=50%) do not. Table 4 makes clear that the
relative importance of shrines is a crucial factor here. Such
importance is measured by the following indicators: the
segmentary level at which the shrine functions as an additional,
religious attribute; the physical characteristics of the shrine
(qubba, kurbi or mzara); and the existence of a twice-annual
festival for that shrine.
Importance |
Range of
geographical distance (km) |
Number of
observances |
Number of
non-observances |
total |
high |
2.6 8.8 |
8 |
1 |
9 |
middle |
.8
3.2 |
1 |
7 |
8 |
low |
.1
2.1 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
Table 4.
The observance of obligations of original zyara among women
resident in the village of Sidi Mhammad, as a function of the
importance of the original shrine, and of the geographical
distance between that shrine and a womans current place of
residence.
Further statistical analysis (Van Binsbergen 1971a: 286f)
demonstrates that such conceivable factors as wealth, prestige,
and the number of years elapsed since the woman, by marrying and
taking up residence in her present segment, acquired obligations
of original zyara, do not have a statistically significant impact
on the observance of original zyara among the resident women of
Sidi Mhammad.
These data are supplemented by those on women who, originating
from Sidi Mhammad, have married outside and therefore are under
obligations of original zyara focussing on the valley of Sidi
Mhammad. The festival of Sidi Mhammad is the only occasion at
which the necessary observational data can be collected; moreover
it is by far the most important occasion for women to observe
their original zyara obligations. For these reasons I shall
concentrate here on zyara to the major, regional shrines of Sidi
Mhammad, and ignore zyara to lesser shrines in the same valley. A
fortunate implication is that thus importance of shrines as a
factor determining observance of original zyara is kept constant,
so that other factors may stand out more clearly. It is important
to realize that in these cases we are dealing with women who have
married not only outside the village, but also outside the valley
of Sidi Mhammad for all villages of that valley would make
the pious visit to the shrines of Sidi Mhammad as part of their
local zyara obligations.
On the basis of my village census and genealogies the full set of
women involved can be identified. Limiting the analysis to those
who currently live within a distance of 20 km (original zyara
across wider distances would be practically impossible anyway),
the set consists of 22 individuals, 15 of whom (=68%) actually
observe original zyara, while 7 (=32%) do not.
While no data are available as to the wealth and prestige of
these out-marrying women in their present, distant places of
residence, the data reveal that the number of years elapsed since
marriage (i.e. since the departure from the original segment) is
significantly associated with observance of original zyara (table
5).
Duration of
marriage (years) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
8 |
10 |
12 |
15 |
25 |
total |
Number of women |
Observing |
1 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
15 |
Not observing |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
Mann-Whitney U-test, corrected for
ties: z= -2.81; p= .003
Table 5. Observance of original zyara
obligations among out-marrying women from Sidi Mhammad, as a
function of the duration of marriage.
All women who left the village for
marriage ten years ago or less, stick to the rule; those who left
longer ago, tend to drop observance. Duration of marriage seems
to be a surface factor, underneath which a more important one is
hidden: the residence, in the segment of origin, of a surviving
parent (table 6). Of course, the longer a marriage has lasted,
the older a woman is and the less likely she will have surviving
parents.
|
At least one
parent alive, and resident in Sidi Mhammad |
No parent
resident in Sidi Mhammad |
total |
observance |
12 |
3 |
15 |
non-observance |
0 |
7 |
7 |
total |
12 |
10 |
22 |
l =15.30; df=1; p< .001. The
l-statistic has the same distribution as X2;
cf. Spitz 1961.
Table 6. Observance of original zyara
obligations, among out-marrying women from Sidi Mhammad, as a
function of parents residence in the segment of origin.
This factor points to the social
functions of original zyara, as a unique opportunity to visit
living kinsmen. Additional statistical analysis (Van Binsbergen
1971a: 288f) however suggests that, besides sociability and
psychological kin support in the vicissitudes of marriage and
virilocal incorporation, another structural theme is involved
here: the inter-generational transfer of property rights
(particularly in relation with land, a scarce asset in
Khumiriya). The wish to keep in touch with consanguineal
relatives around the original shrine is not a sufficient reason
for original zyara; for observance of this type of zyara is not
significantly associated with the residence, in the segment of
origin, of an out-marrying womens brothers whatever
the wealth of the latter. The continued residence of parents
suggests an undivided patrimony. By keeping up visits to her
segment of origin, the woman, in accordance with Khumiri views on
land tenure, asserts her right to a share equal to that of her
male siblings. De facto these rights are waived as, after the
fathers death, the surviving sons administer the patrimony
on their own behalf: initially under the direction of the eldest
sons, until such time when fraternal rivalry necessitates
division. At that point a reversal of visiting obligations can be
seen: more fully incorporated in her husbands segment, the
woman tends to drop her original zyara obligations, but instead
here brothers are under obligation to visit her with presents at
the day of the Great Festival (Id al-Kabir, Id al-Adha). The
womans sons, however, retain a latent right in the land
administered by the mothers brothers, and in exceptional
cases these rights are actually exercised, leading to a
mans matrilocal residence.
Combining the evidence on Sidi Mhammads resident women and
out-marrying women, the main factors determining observance of
original zyara obligations may be summarized as in diagram 7:
Diagram 7. A statistical model of the structure of local zyara in the valley of Sidi Mhammad (click on thumbnail to enlarge)
9. CONCLUSION
The ethnography presented here
clearly has many interesting openings towards central theoretical
concerns in the social science of religion. There is a striking
Durkheimian suggestion of one-to-one correspondence in the extent
to which the saint and his shrine seem to function, at all levels
of social and ritual organization and experience, as a
straightforward symbol of the social group with which they are
associated. Alternatively, such cutting-across the overall
structure of segmentation as can be seen in original and personal
zyara, points to the potential of religion to provide
alternatives to the structural arrangements that govern the more
secular aspects of social life.
This calls to mind the theories of pilgrimage and regional cults
as advanced by the Turners and by Richard Werbner (Turner 1974;
Turner & Turner 1978; Werbner 1977). The possible
contribution of the Khumiri data to the further development of
these theories would at first glance appear to be somewhat
negative. Werbner, in an attempt to get away from the classic
correspondence paradigm in religious anthropology, has stressed
cultic regions autonomy vis-ŕ-vis processes of material
production, secular social organization, and political structure.
The Khumiri case (of predominantly local zyara) however would be
an example of extreme correspondence between cult and the secular
societal process. Moreover, except in the relatively rare cases
of original and personal zyara, which cut across segmentation,
the more massive manifestations of the cult (at the village and
valley level, and culminating in festivals) do not seem to
involve principles different from those operating at the lowest
level: the cult of inconspicuous mzaras that are tucked away in
some corner of a compound and hamlet, and that have virtually no
relevance beyond these small territorial units. In this respect
the Khumiri cult of saints, while clearly a regional cult in
terms of geographical scope and number of people involved, would
not stand out as one when its organizational structure is
considered.
Similarly, it is only in personal zyara to distant saints
the expression of an atomized devotion that the shrine
appears, in Turners terms, as the Center Out
there, and that this generalizations apply as to pilgrimage
as a distinct social process in its own right. In local zyara,
which constitutes the vast majority of pious visits in Khumiriya,
the shrine is not a distant place visited at the end of a long
and arduous physical and spiritual journey across unknown parts
it has more the nature of a visit to a close and
dearly-loved relative, involving a short passage through familiar
surroundings, in the company of people one knows well and
identifies with. It is for this reason that i have refrained, in
this essay, from using the term pilgrimage except in the
title, for signalling purposes only.
Finally, while both authors would stress the dialectics of
inclusiveness/exclusiveness or universalism/particularism as the
crux of the cults they describe, the Khumiri data would suggest
that this dialectic could hardly be adequately analyzed on the
level of popular religion alone. On the one hand the very same
dialectic underlies the secular structure of segmentation (where
the opposition of complementary segments is resolved at the next
level of segmentary inclusion). On the other hand it is on this
dialectic that the interplay resolves between formal and popular
Islam (which the saints straddle, as epitomes of the former and
yet cornerstones of the latter) (Van Binsbergen 1980a).
Another obvious dimension of the Khumiri data concerns the
dialectics between socio-economic structure and the symbolic
order (Van Binsbergen 1981). The embeddedness of most of the cult
of saints, through patterns of local zyara, in a segmentary
organizational structure of localized social units entrusted with
material production, biological reproduction, and with the
regulation of the social relations upon which these fundamental
processes depend, would suggest that in the cult production find
expression, and are in themselves being reproduced. Too little
could be said here about these contradictions (mainly: those
between men and women; and between human patrons and clients) to
indicate their relation to the cult of saints. Moreover, the
virtual coincidence (table 1) in Khumiriya between the cultic
regions as created by various types of zyara, and the area within
which the biological reproduction of human population takes place
(as indicated by the distances across which marriages are
contracted) suggests that the relation between religion and
societal reproduction operates at an even more profound level
than the sheer underpinning of the structures of segmentary
organization, and of authority, that govern the local subsistence
economy. The saints involvement in womens
reproductive troubles points in the same direction. marital
relations, and more in general the tension between male and
female, would seem to constitute a dominant axis in the Khumiri
cult of saints (cf. Fernea & Fernea 1972; Dwyer 1978; Davis
1979).[14]
Meanwhile at least one other contradiction would have to be considered, that between the state-supported rural elite (administrative chiefs, officers of the unemployment relief work organization, teachers) and the peasants. The dialectics of their relationships must be understood in the light of the relation between the peasants less and less viable subsistence economy (with its manifold links with the cult of saints), and the capitalist economy (with its manifold links with the cult of saints), and the capitalist economy into which Tunisia is increasingly drawn with as its latest local manifestation the massive labour migration to Libya of Khumiri men in the 1970s. This interplay of competing relations of production seems to offer, finally, a setting for the persistence of Khumiri popular religion, with the cult of saints as its major manifestation, despite the inroad of formal Islam. Popular religion lives on at least to the extent to which the non-capitalist local subsistence economy lives on albeit that the symbolic order tends to either lag behind, or anticipate, the development of economic relations.
I shall, however, resist here the temptation of jumping to
theoretical conclusions; these will hopefully be drawn elsewhere
at greater length and against a fuller background of historical
and ethnographic data, and theoretical considerations.
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Demeerseman, A.
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Le culte des saints en Kroumirie, IBLA
(Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes), 1: 3-28 (1938), 2: 3-27
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1939-40
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(Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes) 13: 392-396.
Dwyer, D.H.
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in: L. Beck & N. Keddie (eds.), Women in
the Muslim World, Cambridge (Mass.)/London:
Harvard University Press, pp. 595-598.
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Fernea
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Berkely?/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.
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Beek & J.H. Scherer (eds.), The Relevance of Models for
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Paris/The Hague: Mouton.
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Devotional Pluralism in the Andes, paper read at the
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Amsterdam.
Siegel, S.
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Nonparametric Statistics,
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1970
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[9] An indication of this incorporation is that very few widows ever move back to their village of origin; for a set of indicators of female incorporation in a context of marriage, cf. Lewis 1965.
[10] Cf. Köbben 1975, who in fact cites the Khumiri case.
[11] These tests are not affected by the relatively small number of cases, nor do they imply assumptions as to the scale level (interval, ordinal, nominal) of the variables; cf. Siegel, n.d. The short questionnaire, in colloquial Arabic, used to collect (in addition to observational materials) the quantitative data on zyara and other types of religious performance, will be included in Van Binsbergen, in preparation.
[12] Of the 18 shrines, the number 8 and 9 are not visited by any inhabitant of either village: 8 is, however, visited by inhabitants of the neighbouring village of Tracaya-bidh.
[13] A peculiarity of the zyara pattern of the village o Mayziya, and one that is not easily accommodated within our tripartite typology of Khumiri zyara, is that virtually all adult women resident in that villages have an infrequent zyara relationship with the shrines of Sidi Bu-Kharuba and Sidi Bu-Zarura in the adjacent valley of Saydiya, c. 4 km east of Mayziya. Here again segmentary fission provides the explanation: these distant shrines are collectively visited because the majority of the present-day inhabitants of Mayziya are recent immigrants from Saydiya; their migration from that valley has been too recent than that religious and secular ties with that relatively distant place of origin could already have been severed entirely. Khumiri history offers numerous cases of emigrants cutting off such ties after a few decades.
[14]
Davis' juxtaposition of pious men in Islam versus pious women in
Mediterranean Christianity seems scarcely to apply to Khumiri
popular Islam.
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