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The anthropologist Henri Schirmer pointed out that " with the Tuareg, the idea that a man is free and a brigand is so inseparable that the same verb (Iohagh) means both 'he is free' and 'he pillages'. " In Tuareg society the men wear veils, the women don't. The tagelmoust was designed expressly for protection against blowing sand and the sun. But traditionally the tagelmoust is kept in place even when at home, sipping tea with the cup passed under the veil and keeping the mouth covered. In certain clans the tagelmoust is even kept in place when sleeping and it is said, when making love. The Tuareg have forgotten the reason they do this tagelmoust. It must be right, they say, for it was the fashion of their forefathers. The Tuaregs are a desert semi-nomadic people of the Sahara, and as muslims, although errant in their beliefs, and as bandits, although a proper caravan with reasonable booty hasn't passed their best ambush hills in fifty years or more, the men are entitled to four wives, who, under law, must be treated equally.
Now here's the catch. It is not enough for them to treat their females equality. They, all four disconcerting* females, must each think that they are being treated equally. So catch 22, each Tuareg male, ha ha, has but one wife.Tuareg women--young and old, vassal and noble--look and act like aristocrats. They seem not just independent but occasionally overbearing: They leave their husbands and return to their parents on the slightest pretext. All matters of inheritance pass through the female line, which is one reason the men find divorce so difficult, and why many Tuareg men prefer to delay marriage until after their mid-twenties, and content themselves with non-Tuareg concubines.
Traditionally, women are held in such respect that they are seldom molested, and rape is vanishingly uncommon, punishable by death."Men and women toward each other are for the eyes and for the heart, and not just the bed" is a common Tuareg aphorism. After marriage, a Tuareg woman is expected to keep a number of male friends who are encouraged to visit her tent even while the husband is away.
In a society with unsubmissive females and males so often away for extended periods, there are many curiosities of belief. Gustav Nachtigal found that "no Tuareg doubts for a moment that a child can 'sleep' in the womb for many years, or even forever. This pious faith gives a frivolous wife a welcome and convenient pretext for representing to her husband in a respectable light any increase in the family that might have taken place in his absence. The embryo of the child was conceived before he set out on his long journey but God then neglected to waken it on time to effective life, to birth. In such a case, indeed, a husband may be unable completely to suppress his doubts, but against the possibility there is nothing to be said."Wording in blue denotes direct quotes from the book
SAHARA: A NATURAL HISTORY ~ Marq de villiers and Sheula Hirtle * Note:[post edit] There....thats better.  ___________________________ ______________________
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Pooh-Bah
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Very interesting. Reminds of a quip from the old television show "The Adams Family":
MORTICIA: Gomez, do you know the punishment for bigamy?
GOMEZ: Why yes dear: two wives.
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Carpal Tunnel
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discentering females The fringe element, eh?
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Carpal Tunnel
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So tell us milum...doesn't that veil get a bit cumbersome?  Almost sounds like an opera: Der Tagelmouse (or should that be die Tagelmouse? )
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Carpal Tunnel
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i have a bit of a problem with the title of this post The Sexist Pigism of Tuareg Women--
since the copy you posted noted that the men have concubines, (and the women have male friends) i wondering were the sexist behaviour lies...? both get to enjoy the company of members of the opposite sex-- basically with no questions or problems.
is it that goods and assets pass through the female line? making it hard for men to divorce? but i suspect the women, who inherit the assests are also responsible for the children.... so its not like they are keeping them, and leaving the kids in poverty with the father... (as sometimes happens in patriarchal societies, or modified ones like ours)
rape, it notes is almost unknown (so when women have power, they don't tend to make life more dangerous for men, by false accusations) -- (and no society is perfect, the are always both evil men and women so some crime is bound to happen)
its an interesting piece, but i don't understand the title.
what behaviour do you see as sexist?
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stranger
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what behaviour do you see as sexist?I think Milum was just being a little playful, de Troy. Since women, not men, have the upper hand in Tuareg society, Milum turned the "sexist pig" label upside down to make a good headline. It did catch our attention, didn't it? In any case, since this benign people have customs which are rooted in ignorance and superstition (veils worn indoors and in bed for reasons no Tuareg can remember, fanciful notions about the development of their young en ventre sa mere .... and who knows what else), they are hardly a model for any of us to emulate, whether male or female. At least, those are my thoughts. I mean no offence, dear lady.
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i was fully aware that milo was just trying to wind me (and others) up with his use of the term sexist pig.. but its my nature to let him think he is getting to me.... but mostly i just try to make him justify his terms... sometimes he expressed thoughts i don't fully agree with, but they are often well thought out, and worth hearing..
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Carpal Tunnel
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And sometimes, they just crack us up! 
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cafefully Consuelo, or you'll give him a swelled head, and well who know what sort of word play that could lead too... after all you the chief of the gutter police now right? or did i miss understand and was it the other job you were taking?
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Carpal Tunnel
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guess
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How many know the difference between a pig and a sow?
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Carpal Tunnel
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this benign people have customs which are rooted in ignorance and superstition (veils worn indoors and in bed for reasons no Tuareg can remember, fanciful notions about the development of their young en ventre sa mere .... and who knows what else), they are hardly a model for any of us to emulate
Ties worn in warm weather for reasons no WASP can remember, fanciful notions about the determination of the sex of children ... and who knows what else...
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old hand
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Ties worn in warm weather for reasons no WASP can remember ~ faldage Well there is one Tuareg legend (not custom) that can be understood today, and if the people at the library hadn't demanded the return of their book I could give the legend's participants proper names. But anyway...a folk tradition of the Tuareg says that their nation was founded by a great queen of fabulous wealth and great beauty who, like a reverse Moses, led the Tuareg people to their happy home in the desert. A well known french archeologist found a large burial site of elaborate appointments in 1928. So elaborate in fact, that he proclaimed it The Tomb of the Tuareg's First Queen Mother. This discovery seemed to verify the real existence of the legendary Mother Queen and the story of the find was widely circulated in French newspapers. Until it was discovered that the entire fable was the construction of a french novelist, who wrote a romantic novel set in the Sahara in 1902, and that no such Tuareg legend had existed until he wrote his novel. The story of the wonderful founding Queen remains high on the long list of Tuareg legends even today. (And I think I have also learned a useful lesson , henceforth I will think of the Tuareg's Queen when faldage cites his elaborate word-origin sources.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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... and who knows what else...
Yeah, benign... fanciful...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I will think of the Tuareg's Queen when faldage cites his elaborate word-origin sources
It's always good to have a bench-mark. You can rest assured that you'll never be infected by a computer virus because you've heard that the virus known as "It takes guts to say Jesus" is a hoax.
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>You can rest assured that you'll never be infected by a >computer virus because you've heard that the virus known >as "It takes guts to say Jesus" is a hoax.
<exhales> the first time I scanned that (w/o the "s) I was holding my breath..
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\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////
[The Sexist Pigism of Tuareg Women]
///////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
but i don't understand the title. why did you write it? ~ of troyIt may be that I just wanted to bring to everyone's fore mind that terms like "sexist pig" are epitaphs that are little more than name-calling, and that they only serve to reinforce simplistic thinking to the detriment of the shared goals of both woman and man. Or it may be... Like a pre-adolescent school boy I consider girls strange and all-too-serious creatures, and find it great sport to dip pigtails in inkwells whenever opportunity permits. Or... Hey! What's a title but a "grabber". Why write a post if nobody reads it? Sex! Pigs! False accusations! Its a wonder Steven Spielberg doesn't buy my title just for the movie rights. Or... (And this is the only reason for my incongruent title.) I wanted to instigate a discussion of a major flaw of human discourse imposed by the mechanics of language. All decisions made by men are always made for multiple reasons, but when our well-thought reasons are put into words or print, only one reason out of the many is usually expressed with words or with print.I can certainly understand the practicality of this arrangement, and I can sadly appreciate the terrible misunderstandings that are caused by doing so.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ties worn in warm weather for reasons no WASP can rememberHere's a brief history of the necktie that indicates the WASPs stole it from the French who stole it from the Croats. LINGUISTIC NOTE: original word was the Croatian croatta changed to the French cravatte (I'd hate to think it was the Slavic race that gave the world the...yeech...necktie! [how'd that happen, shona? ]) But it also seems the progenitor of the necktie dates all the way back to ancient Egypt...so us Slavs are exonerated . Here's the link (still searching for the reason ties were first donned in the first place...it's been said that the wide ruffled collars of Sir Walter Raleigh's day were designed to prevent head lice from falling under the body garments, but since we're seeing tie-like neck adornments all the way back to antiquity, this may not be the initial reason, but could be): http://www.shop-usa.info/Half_Windsor/TIE_HISTORY/tie_history.html
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veteran
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still searching for the reason ties were first donned in the first place..How about as a means of protecting clothes in an area they are most prone to get dirty? Sort of a portable napkin/bib thing? It would be a sign of status if you could afford a number of these miniature smocky things, especially if they were (paradoxically) made in fine cloth. At the other end of the social scale, workers used to wear neckerchiefs, which served a similar function to handkerchiefs (probably a later invention) - general clean-up cloth, mopping the brow, preventing sweat trickling down your neck, etc. I'm scrabbling a bit, but bet bat's ( ) in the right area.
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Pooh-Bah
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<<Why yes, dear, two wives.>>
Two wives is also the literal definition of Tsuris, used in Yiddish to mean troubles or travail.
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