Questions and Answers on my Berber Presentation

Can you tell me five other important traditions that they have?

There are many more than 5 important traditions because they are all very important. it is like the food chain:if one goes, another goes because of it and another and another. Because they are all very important, I will tell you which I think are fading away the quickest. These are:

-Berber Food

-Berber Weaving

-Berber Jewelry

-Berber Farming

-Berber Weddings

Do Berber woman wear a different style of Berber jewelry if they are rich and are tattoos only for rich people?

Berber woman are rich or poor depending on their heritage, and that reflects on the jewelry they wear. The more jewelry a Berber woman wears, the wealthier she is. Also the bigger the jewelry the more important the event. Even more the more wealthy a person, the more fine the designs on the jewelry is.

Are there different traditions for each tribe?

Of course the traditions vary from tribe to tribe, but mostly they stay the same, but in the same traditions, the details vary. For example, the tribe all have jewelry, and carpets, and clothing, but there are different designs in different tribes. So yes and no the traditions don't vary, but the inside of the tradition varies.

What is the most important tradition among Berber villages?

All the traditions are very important,so I can not say which is the best. For example: what would you wear if there were no clothes, what would you eat with no food, what would you farm with no way to farm?... These are questions that you should think about before asking this question. Some would say they would wear rags but if everyone wears rags, it would be a tradition then. Also if everyone ate something it would have to very depending on their surroundings, and that would become a tradition too.

Berber Traditions Summary

The Berber language, food, arts, music, and weaving, which constitute their lifestyle have been passed on from generation to generation in order for the people to continue living like their ancestors. So why take it away from them now? Why not give the Berber children the opportunity to live a life full ethnic tradition? With the change happening on the outside world, the Berbers are getting more and more influenced by modernization. Many traditions are being forgotten and replaced by newer technology. If this ongoing change continues in the Berber lifestyle, their ancestral traditions will be lost and they as a people will slowly fade away. Furthermore, traditions equate an identity. If the identity is lost what is left of a person but skin and bones. Though the Berbers may be in favor of some change, they would lose their traditions if the change is too big.

Weaving is a very important part of Berber traditions, mostly for women. This activity can take up to 7 years or even more to finish a piece, depending on the size and precision involved. A carpet may be made for a ceremony or to tell about a ceremony too. Before starting to weave, there are other steps to follow in order for the carpet to be successfully completed. The choice of materials, which include wool, camel hair, and rarely and in places close to cities, Berbers use nylon and olefin. The natural materials are hand washed and then colored.

The Berbers use bold colors, which come from different plants or even spices. For example: saffron makes yellow, henna or pomegranate make red or orange, and wild mint makes green.

The weave also varies depending on the climate in the area. In a colder climate, you will find looser and larger loops. However, in a warmer climate, you would find a finer weave, and in a mild one a weave of about 2 cm. In each region, there is a different weave for not only different animals are present (camel or sheep), but also there can be small changes in traditions that greatly affect the inspiration and weaving of Berber women.

Food was and is still a mandatory tradition that affects the lifestyle of people very much. This is because if a Berber woman were to prepare a simple dish like nuggets, she would have a lot more leisure time, and the traditions would not be the same then.

Also, since the traditional food like treed, couscous, and other tagines require many different spices and herbs including cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, paprika, and black pepper, the woman would have to go get them, and then cook a dish that could take the whole afternoon or even more. The spices used, are those most available to them (closer to them).

Tea is also an important part of Berber traditions because it symbolizes a warm welcome to a guest of the house. Berber tea is based on mint hot water and theine.

Berber music and dance is popular for its instruments and and the mix of men and women. Both men and women dance and sing together though now they are starting to doubt that traditions because of the influence of the Arabs. Berber music and dance would not the same without its instruments: genbri, bendir, taarrija, and al ghaita which are only a minority of the existing Berber instruments.

Berber jewelery is known to be big and bulky. Berber women wear bigger jewelery in important events and celebrations than on normal days at home. Women wear the hand of Fatima, which wards of evil. Wealthier ones wear it in silver, while the less wealthy wear it other materials.

All of these topics would be lost forever if the Berbers were to disappear. If the Berbers lose their traditions, they lose their identity. And when a person loses their identity, they do not belong to any group, and if all the Berbers lose their identities, the culture will fade away. Also, if this modernization affects Berbers, it means that it has affected other ethnic groups who also have, are, or will lose their traditions too. After all these groups fade away, what will people be inspired by, the arts, the books, architecture? What will they become? A banal lack of inspiration displayed to show the decayed traditions of the world

Berber Traditions Summary

Berber Traditions Summary

The Berber language, food, arts, music, and weaving, which constitute their lifestyle have been passed on from generation to generation in order for the people to continue living like their ancestors. So why take it away from them now? Why not give the Berber children the opportunity to live a life full ethnic tradition? With the change happening on the outside world, the Berbers are getting more and more influenced by modernization. Many traditions are being forgotten and replaced by newer technology. If this ongoing change continues in the Berber lifestyle, their ancestral traditions will be lost and they as a people will slowly fade away. Furthermore, traditions equate an identity. If the identity is lost what is left of a person but skin and bones. Though the Berbers may be in favor of some change, they would lose their traditions if the change is too big.

Weaving is a very important part of Berber traditions, mostly for women. This activity can take up to 7 years or even more to finish a piece, depending on the size and precision involved. A carpet may be made for a ceremony or to tell about a ceremony too. Before starting to weave, there are other steps to follow in order for the carpet to be successfully completed. The choice of materials, which include wool, camel hair, and rarely and in places close to cities, Berbers use nylon and olefin. The natural materials are hand washed and then colored.

The Berbers use bold colors, which come from different plants or even spices. For example: saffron makes yellow, henna or pomegranate make red or orange, and wild mint makes green.

The weave also varies depending on the climate in the area. In a colder climate, you will find looser and larger loops. However, in a warmer climate, you would find a finer weave, and in a mild one a weave of about 2 cm. In each region, there is a different weave for not only different animals are present (camel or sheep), but also there can be small changes in traditions that greatly affect the inspiration and weaving of Berber women.

Food was and is still a mandatory tradition that affects the lifestyle of people very much. This is because if a Berber woman were to prepare a simple dish like nuggets, she would have a lot more leisure time, and the traditions would not be the same then.

Also, since the traditional food like treed, couscous, and other tagines require many different spices and herbs including cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, paprika, and black pepper, the woman would have to go get them, and then cook a dish that could take the whole afternoon or even more. The spices used, are those most available to them (closer to them).

Tea is also an important part of Berber traditions because it symbolizes a warm welcome to a guest of the house. Berber tea is based on mint hot water and theine.

Berber music and dance is popular for its instruments and and the mix of men and women. Both men and women dance and sing together though now they are starting to doubt that traditions because of the influence of the Arabs. Berber music and dance would not the same without its instruments: genbri, bendir, taarrija, and al ghaita which are only a minority of the existing Berber instruments.

Berber jewelery is known to be big and bulky. Berber women wear bigger jewelery in important events and celebrations than on normal days at home. Women wear the hand of Fatima, which wards of evil. Wealthier ones wear it in silver, while the less wealthy wear it other materials.

All of these topics would be lost forever if the Berbers were to disappear. If the Berbers lose their traditions, they lose their identity. And when a person loses their identity, they do not belong to any group, and if all the Berbers lose their identities, the culture will fade away. Also, if this modernization affects Berbers, it means that it has affected other ethnic groups who also have, are, or will lose their traditions too. After all these groups fade away, what will people be inspired by, the arts, the books, architecture? What will they become? A banal lack of inspiration displayed to show the decayed traditions of the world

During WWW I have experienced many activities I have never even thought of doing before with my peers. These include: Picking walnuts, building dams, building irrigation systems, and washing clothes. Though all of these may seem amusing, my favorite activity was building the dams. This is because I am a very active person, and I like challenging myself. With my peers, we moved the rocks, big and heavy to the other side of the shore, and built a dam to block it. We needed leaves and mud to cover the holes in between the rocks, nevertheless, this took time, but in 30 minutes, we had a dam half built and an irrigation system almost finished. Some of us continued building the dam, while others switched activities. It was even harder with less people, because we had less strength in total, and people had to collect leaves and mud. Later on in the day, we had finished the dam and were having fun near the river, distributing its water slowly but surely through the irrigation system, stopping just at the dam we had built.

My second favorite activy was washing the clothes, because we were across the river from each other, and it was fun throwing wet clothes at eachother. We all got wet, and we were laughing. Depending on your job, you would either get clothes full of

soap, full of water, or almost dry. I almost tripped and fell trying to throw a set of clothes to my peer at the other side of

the river. We switched jobs so in the end, we all had fun and kept a great memory of this day. I was also satisfied by our work because we really helped the Berber village we were at, and were cheerful at the same time. Our teachers were proud of us too, since they saw us work hard, because they were with us. Even now, we look back on this experience and we are proud.

I have brown curly hair and and brown eyes. I am berber because my grandma is berber. I love going outdoors because in Morocco the air isn't that polluted. I love eating traditional foods because they are delicious. Now they are disappearing with some other Moroccan traditions. There are many traditional foods in Morocco like couscous. In Morocco, there are more houses than apartment buildings, and some are huge like others are small. most of the people are nice and helpful. There are many beaches in Morocco, which is why I like going there.

I live in Morocco,a modernizing traditional country located in North Western

Africa. Rabat and Casablanca are two of its cities that are close together, but very different.

Rabat is a city where the sidewalks are almost completely covered with trees, grass, flowers, and

other plants. Almost all houses have space for a big enough garden. And there isn’t a lot of noise

in most places. There are some malls in Rabat, but not as many as in Casablanca. There is a vast

medina, almost as big as the old city in the East side of the city. This part of the city is near Salé

and there are all kinds of houses. Big houses, small houses, large houses,and tall houses, but the

most surprising are the mud houses. In Rabat there is very little pollution compared to the latter.

In Casablanca, life isn’t at all the same because there is a lot much more pollution and cars all

around with smoke coming out of the cars and honking sounds filling your ears day and night in

most places of the city. Though Casablanca is a polluted city, there are advantages to living

there. First of all, there are 2 american schools instead of only one in Rabat. There are also

more shops, malls, and restaurants in Casablanca. There are other cities more like Rabat or

Casablanca, but these are main examples of this country’s difference between cities.