مجلة المعارف للبحوث والدراسات التاريخية
Volume 10, Numéro 1, Pages 683-705
2025-06-03
Tattooing Tradition In The Berber And Arab Communities Of Algeria During The Colonial Period
Authors : Benketaf Hafid . Melki Fatima Zohra .
Abstract
This article aims at studying tattooing as a vanished practice in the Algerian culture. The research methodology is based on qualitative and quantitative methods of collecting data that relies on few documents mostly written in French, and on scarce testimonies. The study reveals that tattooing remained a primitive art as regards the symbols, designs, and significance. The purpose of tattooing was either to reveal beauty or to hide it, which means that beautiful and ugly girls would be put on the same footing as regards their chances of getting married since imperfect face traits were dissimulated by the tattoos. Tattooing was performed to protect the girls from being sexually harassed or assaulted since a face-tattooed girl or woman does not sexually appeal to most men especially the French colonisers. Magic or therapeutic tattoos were performed to protect from the devils and the evil eye, and to cure incurable illnesses. The research could not establish any discrepancy in the design and significance of the tattoos between Arab and Berber communities. Post-independence democratisation of education and the fight against illiteracy caused the disappearance of tattooing because of the new social, political, and economic roles acquired by women
Keywords
Tattoos ; Algeria ; cultural Identity ; tattoos symbols ; tattoos designs ; tattoos significance
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