Auteur: Aures
Date: 2010-05-28 15:22:34
The Influence of Its Geography on the People of the Aures Massif (suite)
Poteries et tatouages en Aurès.
Dans cette partie de la conférence, M. W. Hilton-Simpson se contente d’une brève description du métier à tisser en Aurès tout en le distinguant de ceux de nos voisins de Constantine et de Tunis. Il en est de même pour le travail de la poterie.
Cependant, en constatant que les motifs de tatouages sont souvent les mêmes que ceux de la décoration de la poterie auresienne, le conférencier développe un peu plus ce sujet afin de retracer l’origine de certains DESSINS ORNOMENTAUX, à savoir la "palme" et le "scorpion"
-Tajritt (tajridt): la palme est un symbole très ancien qui remonte au-delà du 15e siècle avant notre ère. En effet, les chefs amazighs du temple du pharaon Seti I avaient des palmes brodées sur leur habit (1). En plus, tous les quatre portent des tatouages (2).
-Tghirdemt: selon le Dr Bertholon, les poteries découvertes aux tombeaux de Nagada, datant de plus de 3000 ans avant notre ère, portent des dessins de scorpions représentés de la même façon que les tatouages d'aujourd'hui en Afrique du Nord.(2)
Bref, voici cette partie de la conférence de M. W. Hilton-Simpson …et bonne lecture.
-------------------
THE INFLUENCE OF ITS GEOGRAPHY ON THE PEOPLE OF THE AURES MASSIF, ALGERIA (Suite)
-V-
Living, as was our habit, in native huts in the villages themselves, we found ample opportunity of studying Shawiya arts and crafts, and, owing to the presence of my wife, we were able to observe those of the women as closely as those of the men, though the Moslem Berber woman, despite the far greater freedom she enjoys than the poor drudge of a desert oasis, could scarcely be expected to gratify the curiosity of a male European traveling alone. Thus, between us, my wife and I were able to observe in detail their methods of spinning, one of which, I believe, has not yet been described, and weaving upon a simple vertical hand-loom, in which no shuttle is employed, for more advanced looms, such as those of Tlemsen and the card loom for ribbon used at Constantine and Tunis, have not yet penetrated into the Aures. Nevertheless the material woven for burnouses, pillows, and rugs is well made and durable, as is the tent-cloth and sacking manufactured upon a very primitive horizontal loom, often rigged up in the village street, in connection with which a rudimentary shuttle is employed, merely a plain stick around which the weft is coiled.
Every Shawiya woman we have met is skilled in the art of weaving. The very great majority are also capable of manufacturing for themselves such simple articles of pottery as they require for household use. These bowls, dishes, and stew-pots are fashioned by hand without the aid of a wheel, and the vessels when nearly dry are polished with a snail-shell or smooth pebble to give them an even surface. After drying in the sun a number of pots are placed upon a heap of stones and covered with brushwood and refuse, the burning of which bakes the vessels beneath it.
In most parts of the massif a coating of varnish, consisting of shellac bought from Kabyle pedlars or the gum of a local juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus), which is applied while the pot is still hot from the baking, is all the ornament added; but in some villages, especially at Beni Ferra, a number of bowls are decorated with very rough patterns in reddish earth laid on with a doubled straw. These patterns, far more primitive than those employed by the Kabyle Berbers near the coast, though crude, are interesting in that two at least of them seem to constitute traces of a very ancient Libyan cult.
(Tajritt ) The first of these, two lines of herring-bone forming two sides of a triangle, is now known to the natives as " jerida," or palm-branch, and it is very commonly to be found upon such articles of pottery as are decorated in the Aures, and, almost universally, in the facial tattoo marks of the women. In it Dr. Bertholon ( ‘ La Berberie Orientale,’ p. 482 ) sees a direct connection with the sign of Ta-Nit or Neith, the goddess of Sais in the Nile Delta, one of the earliest Egyptian goddesses, who was reported to have been introduced there from Libya, whose worship was adopted by the Phoenician settlers at Carthage, and whom Herodotus and other classical writers have identified with Athena.
(Tghirdemt) In addition to this design, another, a line resembling an inverted W, known to the Shawiya as the "scorpion," is also to be found upon the pottery and is used in tattoo, and may possibly be a relic of the days when, according to Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, " the scorpion was venerated in Egypt at a very early period," and " was sacred to Isis," which divinity had assumed the attributes of Neith (‘ Gods of the Egyptians,’ 2, 377). There is, however, no proof available that the veneration of the scorpion came from the west. But whether or not we are prepared to accept the flimsy evidence of Shawiya designs in attempting to establish a connection with a former cult of Neith, we have further traces of it in certain ceremonies and fêtes observed in the Aures which appear to be somewhat more clear.
(à suivre)
------------------------
NOTES:
1- Bates, Oric, extrait du livre: The eastern Libyans, 1914, pp. 137-140. Son URL est: megaupload(point)com/?d=H9N9QRBH
2- Dr Bertholon, « Origines néolithique et mycénienne des tatouages des indigènes de nord de l’Afrique », Archives d'anthropologie criminelle, T19, 1904, pp756-786.(Cet article est disponible en ligne au site: Google books)
3- Des lectures supplémentaires, spécifiques aux tatouages et à la poterie de la région aurèsienne, seront postées au thème Livres et articles berbères à télécharger, notamment:
I- Extraits du livre de Mathéa Gaudry
- La fabrication des poteries ( terre, pétrissage, modelage, séchage, polissage, cuisson, dessins et ornementation), pp 199-215
- Les tatouages, pp 43-46
II- Extraits du livre de Basset / Nezzal
- Amsal ( le travail de poterie), pp.34-36
- Aqqad ( la cuisson des poteries), pp.36-39
III- L'article de T. Rivière & J. Faublée : Les tatouages des Chaouia de l'Aurès
|
|
