The Victim and its Masks: An Essay on Sacrifice and Masquerade in the Maghreb (Hardcover)

The Victim and its Masks: An Essay on Sacrifice and Masquerade in the Maghreb By Abdellah Hammoudi, Paula Wissing (Translated by) Cover Image
By Abdellah Hammoudi, Paula Wissing (Translated by)
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Description


Each year, in a solemn Sunni Muslim feast, the Ait Mizane of southern Morocco reenact the story of Abraham as a ritual sacrifice, a symbolic observance of their submission to the divine. After this sober ceremony comes a bacchanalian masquerade which seems to violate every principle the sacrifice affirmed. Because of the apparent contradiction between sacrifice and masquerade, observers have described the two as entirely separate events. This book reunites them as a single ritual process within Islamic tradition.

About the Author


Abdellah Hammoudi is professor of anthropology and Near Eastern studies at Princeton University.
Product Details
ISBN: 9780226315256
ISBN-10: 0226315258
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: November 1st, 1993
Pages: 216
Language: English