Kabylia, the House, and the Road: Games of Reversal and Displacement

Abstract

This article traces the difficult relationship between tradition and modernity in several dwelling environments in Kabylia, Algeria. The traditional architecture of the Berber village of Bou Mansour structures a game of reversal that regulates the delicate relationship between two contradictory spheres of life: the outside world of masculine confrontation and the inside world dominated by feminine presence. However, dwelling and building practices in the village increasingly show disrupting signs of displacement that have to do with the exodus of residents. In the provincial capital of Tizi Ouzou, modern apartment dwellers seem restlessly caught in a continuous move between the town and their villages of origin, searching for an impossible synthesis of tradition and modernity. Returning end-of-career migrants in Beni Yenni, on the other hand, realize their own desire of ambivalence by introducing in the home village-system building and dwelling practices displaced from their successful urban and modern experiences.