Religion and Culture
Religion, Spirituality, Superstition, and Legends
- The Tuareg beliefs are a mix of Islam and animism. (Tuareg people)
- One of the Tuareg people's superstitions is that if you sleep on a dead relative or friend's grave, then you will be able to "fortell the future". (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 28; Rasmussen, Susan)
- Another spiritual belief of the Tuareg is that the human body contains a soul, but when a person sleeps, the soul is allowed to leave the body and drift around the world. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 28)
- A marabout is the holy man in a Tuareg village. His job is to teach children the Islamic lessons from the Koran, the Islamic book. He also "officiates at important events, such as weddings and funerals." (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 19)
- Aligouran was a mythical hero that wrote ancient messages in Tifnagh, on stones, to record important parts of the Tuareg's history. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 19)
![Picture](/uploads/4/3/6/3/43630397/656981113.jpg?250)
Music and the Arts
- Females normally play instruments. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 14)
- They make drums out of emptied gourds or bowls. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 14)
- Two major instruments that they play are an anzad(shown in the picture to the top left), which is a violin with one string; and the other called a tende, which is a tambour ("long-necked, string instruments) covered in goatskin. (Tuareg people)
- The drummers play their drums to call everyone in the village to a feast. The feast is called an ahal. During an ahal, the women perform songs that represent stories and clap, while the men sit on their camels and walk around them. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 14)
- Some of their forms of art include jewelry, triks ("leather and metal saddle decorations"), and swords. (Tuareg people)
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![Picture](/uploads/4/3/6/3/43630397/616265848.jpg?294)
Clothing
- Their clothing is often dyed with indigo. They pound the indigo into their clothes, because of the lack of water. This causes the dye to get onto their body, which is how they get their name, the Blue People. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 13-14)
- Both men and women wear flowy robes, to help keep cool in the hot, desert weather. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 13)
- Men have to cover their faces when they go out with someone out of their family. They must cover more of their face depending on how important the person is. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 13)
- Women do not have to cover their faces, but if they are married they must wear a headscarf. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 13)
- "The most famous Tuareg symbol is the Tagelmust, an often indigo blue-colored veil called an Alasho." (Tuareg people)
Other Culture Facts
- Women are very important in their society, which makes their society matriarchal. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 14)
- Women pick where the villages are set up. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, )
- Their social structure is set up into five different groups. These groups, from highest on the social ladder to the bottom, are nobles, noble's tenants, artistians, servants, and serfs. (Sabbah, Ann Carey, 26)
- Some rites of passage include "namedays, weddings, memorials/funeral feasts". Another, more specific one is when a boy turns 18 years old, they have a ceremony where they wrap his face in a veil to show how the Tuareg value modesty. (Rasmussen, Susan)