Culture of Algeria
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The culture of Algeria encompasses literature, music, religion, cuisine, and other facets of life in Algeria.
Religion
The state religion of Algeria is Sunni Islam. About 99% of the Algerian population are Muslims, specifically Sunni Muslims.[1] It also has Christian and Jewish minorities who make up less than 1% of the population.
Islam was introduced to Algeria with the
Since independence after the Algerian War, regimes have sought to develop an Islamic Arab socialist state, and a cabinet-level ministry acts for the government in religious affairs. President Houari Boumédiene sought to increase Islamic awareness and to reduce Western influence, although the rights of non-Muslims continued to be respected.[3]
Greetings
Greetings in Algeria have been described as lengthy. In addition to handshaking, Algerians ask about health, family and work to show concerns for others. Friends and family also exchange kisses on the cheeks. Some Algerian men might avoid prolonged eye contact with women and avoid personal questions. These behaviors are observed out of respect and to maintain appropriate social manners.[4] Most Algerians uphold Arab traditions of hospitality, and are friendly and helpful.[5]
Cuisine
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Algerian cuisine features cooking styles and dishes derived from traditional
Dress
Algerian clothing, influenced by the country's rich history and cultural heritage, varies among different regions and communities in Algeria. Traditional Algerian clothing is Islamic custom, although there are Algerians who adopted clothing based on Western style, especially in the cities.[7] In urban areas, there is a mix of traditional clothing and increasingly common Western style clothing, whereas traditional clothing is much more common in rural areas.[8] As an Islamic country, Algeria has limits on dress code. Most Algerians follow Islamic dress codes, and foreigners are expected to show modesty, such as female visitors having to avoid exposing their shoulders, knees or chest.[9]
One of the most common traditional garments for both men and women in Algeria is djellaba. The djellaba is a long, loose-fitting robe that typically reaches down to the ankles. It is made from various fabrics, such as cotton or wool. The djellaba usually has long sleeves and a hood, and it is often worn over other clothing. In rural areas, women often wear a traditional dress called haik. The haik is a large rectangular piece of fabric, usually made of wool or cotton, which covers the body and is wrapped around the head as a hood. The haik is typically white, but it can also be found in other colors and patterns. It is of Andalusi Arab origin.[10] The traditional dress for men in Algeria includes a loose-fitting shirt called gandoura. The gandoura is usually made of lightweight fabric and is worn over sirwal. Men also wear a variety of head coverings, such as turbans or fez hats. In urban areas and on special occasions, Algerians often wear modern Western-style clothing. However, traditional garments are still highly valued and are worn for cultural celebrations, religious events, and weddings. Other examples of traditional Algerian dress includes the qashabiya, kaftan and karakou. In Kabylia and the Aurès, Berber jewellery made of silver, beads, and other items was an important component of Berber identities up to the mid-20th century.[11]
Literature
Modern Algerian literature, split between
In philosophy and the humanities,
Algerian culture has been strongly influenced by
Music
The
Although raï is now generally welcomed and praised as a cultural emblem of Algeria, in the post-independence period the form was often attacked or criticised by Islamic and government authorities. These attitudes began to change around 1985, partially due to the influence of Colonel Snoussi, an ex-military officer turned raï artist.[15] Another reason for the shift in attitude toward raï was the music's growing popularity in France, which the Algerian government viewed as positive.
Women in Algeria
In comparison to other Muslim majority countries, Algerian women overall have historically possessed more levels of freedom. Algerian women have seemed to be offered more leniency and have continuously proved to have an important voice in Algerian society.[16] However, while they seem to receive leniency, they still suffer from an overall lack of protection of legislation or cultural norms.
Examples
Examples of leniency can be depicted through women only having to wear their veils inside cities, not throughout their daily life regardless of their location. Historically, oppression of Algerian women grew during the French imperial period in 1965. Culturally, French influence caused Algerian men to have their voices oppressed and denied their pride, causing them to lash out in their domestic lives. However, this is not a direct representation of Algeria culture. The women's rights movement in Algeria continues to be a prevalent cultural movement to this day.[17]
Media
Visual arts
1910: a generation of precursors
During the first half of the twentieth century, artists mainly recuperated models and patterns imported – or imposed – by an imperialist French power.[18]
As Edward Said argued in his book Orientalism in 1978, Algerian artists struggled with the perception and representations of Westerners. Almost a century after the conquest by the French, Azouaou Mammeri (1886–1954), Abdelhalim Hemche (1906–1978), Mohammed Zmirli (1909-1984), and Miloud Boukerche (1920–1979) were the first to introduce easel painting. They benefited from "breaches" in the educational system and were able to pursue a training in plastic arts. Even though they attempted to focus on the reality of Algerians' everyday routine, they were still to a certain extent incorporated in the orientalism movement.
The tradition of oriental illumination and miniature was introduced around the same period, through artists such as Mohamed Racim (1896–1974) or Mohamed Temman (1915-1988). It is the two main expression of figuration in a country where popular abstract symbolic, Berberian or Arabic, are integrated mainly through architecture, furnitures, weaving, pottery, leather and metal workmanship.
How to reappropriate one's own history is a dynamic in Algerian contemporary art, reflecting on the deep social changes people experienced.
Artists attempt a successful introspective work in which the duality in terms of identity creates a dynamic that overcomes "orientalism" and exotism. The main stake is for the artist and the spectator to reappropriate a liberty of expression and interpretation. Main artists of that period are: Boukerche, Benaboura, Ali Ali Khodja, Yelles, or Baya.
1930: a generation of founders
The vast majority of the artists incorporate the thematic of the independence war, from those who lived it to the artists that use it as a legacy. Impregnated by all the artistic and ideological movements that marked the first half of the twentieth century, artists are concerned with the society they live in and denounce segregation, racism and injustice that divided communities of colonial Algeria. A clear shift in operated from orientalism and exoticism: new themes such as the trauma and the pain appear, for instance in the portrait The Widow (1970) by Mohamed Issiakhem.
"Art is a form of resistance as it suggests and makes visible the invisible, the hidden, it stands alert on the side of life".[19]
It was also a time when Algerian artists start organizing themselves, through the National Union of Plastic Arts or UNAP (1963) for instance; artists such as Mohamed Issiakhem or Ali Khodja were part of it.
Non-figuration and "Painters of the Sign"
Abdallah Benanteur and Mohamed Khadda opened a path for abstract (non-figurative) Algerian art. They were French since childhood and emigrated to France. They were followed by artists such as Mohamed Aksouh, Mohamed Louail, Abdelkader Guermaz and Ali Ali-Khodja.
The "Painters of the Sign" are Algerian artists born in the 1930s who, at the beginning of the 1960s, found inspiration in the abstract rhythm of Arabic writing. The term "peintres du Signe" was coined by the poet
Aouchem
Algerian artists reconnected with part of their historical and cultural legacy, especially the influence of
In spite of a surge of political violence following the war of independence, where the hegemony of the Arabic culture and language tended to overlap on the berberian culture, the plastic traditions of popular signs managed to maintain. Aouchem builds on this traditional legacy.
Naivety and expressionism
Since the 1980s, there has been a renewal and also a form of "naivety", trying to go past the trauma of the war and address new contemporary issues.
Expressionism was dominated by Mohamed Issiakhem, affectionately nicknamed "Oeil de lynx" (lynx eye) by his fellow writer Kateb Yacine. When he was 15, he had an accident with a grenade. Two of his sisters and his nephew died, his forearm had to be amputated. His personal drama resonates in work. He expressed themes like grief and loss through the use of thick pastes and universal figures; as an echo of the hardships of the Algerian war, as well as the universal struggle of those silenced and oppressed.
Renewal of visual arts
Since the 1980s, a new generation of Maghrebi artists has arisen. A large proportion is trained in Europe. Artists locally and among the Diaspora explore new techniques and face the challenges of a globalized art market. They are bringing together various elements of their identity, marked by the status of immigrant of first or second generation. They address issues that speak to the Arab world with an "outsider" lens. Kader Attia is one of them. He was born in France in 1970. In a large installation in 2007 called Ghost, he displayed dozens of veiled figures on their knees, made of aluminum fold.[23]
Cinema
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Sports
Football, handball, athletics, boxing, martial arts, volleyball and basketball are the most popular sports in the country.
See also
References
- ^ "2020 Report on International Religious Freedom: Algeria". U.S. Department of State. 12 May 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-92-3-104153-2.
- ^ Deeb, Mary Jane. "Islam." Algeria (Country Study). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress; Helen Chapan Metz, ed. December 1993. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "Algeria - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette". www.commisceo-global.com. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-902339-70-2.
- ^ a b Farid Zadi. "Algerian cuisine". Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
- ISBN 978-1-5026-2733-9.
- ISBN 978-1-907065-12-5.
- ISBN 978-1-902339-09-2.
- ^ "Histoire du Hayek". www.daraziza.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Camps-Fabrer, Henriette (1970). Les Bijoux de grande Kabylie. Collections du Musée du Bardo et du Centre de recherches anthropologiques, préhistoriques et ethnographiques, Algiers, Arts et métiers graphiques. Camps-Fabrer, Henriette (1990). Bijoux berbères d'Algérie: Grande Kabylie, Aurès. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud.
- ^ Tahar Djaout French Publishers' Agency and France Edition, Inc. (accessed 4 April 2006)
- ^ a b "An Introduction to Northern African Rai Music". LiveAbout. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
- ^ "Raï | musical style | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
- ^ Gross, Joan, David McMurray, and Ted Swedenburg. "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Raï, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identities." Diaspora 3:1 (1994): 3- 39. [Reprinted in The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader, ed. by Jonathan Xavier and Renato Rosaldo.
- S2CID 143574364.
- JSTOR 24590231.
- ISBN 978-2-950676-81-8.
- ISBN 978-9961-623-93-0.
- ISBN 9789961623008.
- ISBN 284272156X.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "Aouchem manifesto". Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
- ^ "Kader Attia : la puissance du vide". 22 December 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2013.