Anthropos 99.2004 
Berichte und Kommentare 
Representations of Kinship 
Agnatic Ideology and Uterine Values 
in a Berber-Speaking Tribe (Southeast 
Morocco) 
Marie-Luce Gélard 
Kinship studies conducted in Moslem societies al 
most invariably concentrate on the Arab system of 
kinship and marriage, although this is not the only 
system within the Moslem sphere of influence. 
Other conceptions exist, both similar and differ 
ent, such as the representations derived from the 
fundamental narrative of the Ait Khebbach tribe, 
a Berber-speaking group established in Southeast 
Morocco. Their perceptions of origin provide the 
material for a new approach to the paradigm that 
opposes agnation (Arab) and cognation (Berber). 1 
All Moroccan Berber groups have adopted the 
Arab system of kinship based principally on ag 
nation 2 in which kinship rests exclusively on pat- 
rilineage. The Ait Khebbach have adopted agnate 
ideology but allusions to uterine ties of kinship 
are frequent too, as the different configurations of 
kinship prove. 
Symbolic representations are particularly visi 
ble in the social fiction of a group, especially its 
genesis and the related foundation myth. The Ait 
Khebbach live in a society that is penetrated by 
such a myth. This happens to be an exceptional 
analytical tool to gather information on a system of 
values, representations, and cultural practices that 
1 The term cognate refers to a group of individuals related 
through ties of blood, whether on the male or the female 
side. 
2 Ibn Khaldoun in the 14th century (1999) and W. Robertson 
Smith (1885) note, however, that uterine kinship does exist 
in the Arab system of kinship. For further information see 
Conte (1991, 1994, 2001) and Bonte (2000a, 2000b). 
remain valid even today. The aim of this study is 
to discover where reality meets with myth and the 
circumstances in which ideological construction 
and social practices overlap. The author studies 
the way symbolic representations reflect different 
levels of kinship - ties of blood (through males) 
as opposed to ties of milk (through females) - 
and investigates the typical Berber form of kinship 
through aggregation. 
In the foundation myth, the Ait Khebbach dou 
bly assert an attachment to uterine values by re 
lating first the ancestry and then the marriage of 
their founder. This is followed by a biographi 
cal panegyric in which the hero becomes a sort 
of incarnation of paternal power (agnate values). 
Then mythical discourse on the destiny of the 
eponym gradually launches into contemporary de 
terminisms of milk kinship in which women play 
an essential part. 
Representations of kinship, therefore, oscillate 
between agnate ideology and an attachment to 
uterine ties. The author proposes to investigate this 
permanent alternation from one value to the other. 
The Ait Khebbach Tribe 
The Ait Khebbach belong to the powerful Ait 
Atta confederation. Originally they were nomads 
(rhal) and ranked among the most accomplished 
voyagers on the long trans-Saharan routes leading 
from Morocco to Mali across the Sahara. They 
controlled the Tafilalt oasis, seat of the famous 
Berber kingdom of Sijilmassa 3 * * and, for centuries, 
had also protected the caravans (ichabarn) of 
3 The kingdom of Sijilmassa, founded in the 8th century 
by the Miknaça Berbers, was to become one of the larg 
est metropolitan centres of the Sahara. Its commercial, 
political, and religious influence (Kharijite Islam) lasted for 
nearly seven centuries. In the 11th century, the historian El- 
Bekri (1913 [1068]) described the history of this kingdom. 
See also Jacques-Meunié (1982) and Mezzine (1987).