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Écrire la coutume

Une tribu bédouine de Cyrénaïque face à la modernité
Writing down customs: A Beduin tribe in Cyrenaica faces modernity
Gianni Albergoni
p. 25-50

Abstracts

Writing down customs: A Beduin tribe in Cyrenaica faces modernity. -- Toward 1970 in Libya, a country undergoing major change, the leaders of the last camel-herding tribe in Cyrenaica decided to set customary law ('urf) down in writing. Exclusively focalized on providing material compensation in penal cases and on collective uses of the land, this document has reaffirmed the tribe's sacrosanct solidarity in coping with menaces. Far from being a conservative declaration of faith for internal use, this text could represent a two-pronged group strategy. In line with a longstanding strategy of enhancing the group's status, it is a signal of religious excellence addressed to outsiders. In line with the other, more recent strategy, maintaining the tribe as a corporate group is less of a goal in and of itself than a means for converting the tribal economy.

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References

Bibliographical reference

Gianni Albergoni, “Écrire la coutume”Études rurales, 155-156 | 2000, 25-50.

Electronic reference

Gianni Albergoni, “Écrire la coutume”Études rurales [Online], 155-156 | 2000, Online since 16 June 2003, connection on 16 April 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesrurales/14; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesrurales.14

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About the author

Gianni Albergoni

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Copyright

The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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