2015/12/30 by Bruce Maddy‐Weitzman · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis #Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender #African Studies and Geopolitics #Barbarian #Pejorative #Identity (music) #Meaning (existential) #Indigenous #Ethnology #History #Geography #Genealogy #Ancient history #Linguistics #Art
paper · doi:10.1002/9781118663202.wberen411
openalex publication_date 2015/12/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Berbers, from the Greek word meaning “barbarian,” are the indigenous peoples of the Maghrib (in North Africa west of the Nile Valley) and have existed in that area since the beginning of recorded history. The term is viewed as pejorative by the modern Berber identity movement and hence is increasingly being supplanted by “Amazigh” (free man). The Berbers number more than twenty million and reside primarily in Morocco and Algeria. The Berber language, Tamazight, is spoken in numerous dialects and until recent decades has been almost exclusively oral. Since the second half of the twentieth century, North African states, and particularly Morocco, have increasingly acknowledged the Berber contribution to their history, culture, and collective identity.