The rise of female healers in the middle Atlas, Morocco

Abstract

In this article the author seeks an explanation for the remarkable rise of women healers in the Middle Atlas mountains in Morocco. Two groups of women healers are being treated: the women herbalists in the marketplace and midwives in the rural region of a Berber tribe called Ait Abdi. An attempt is made to understand the role of women in healing among the semi-nomadic Berber tribes in the past. Apparently, indigenous Berber women as well as men played a minor part as reputed healers. This situation hardly changed over the years. It is Arab men, who settled as Qoran savants or visited the local markets and the local holy tribes ( Chorfa) more or less monopolised the prestigious healing activities. It is argued that this was possible, because they had better accepted forms of legal and traditional legitimacy at their disposal. The development that is taking place among the more professional traditional healers nowadays consists of a repalcement of male Arab and Chorfa healers by Arab and Chorfa women. In fact, men suffer a loss of prestige as traditional healers, whereas many women gain in this respect. This loss of male prestige in traditional healing is explained by the decreasing significance of a traditional means of legitimation and prestige of which healing is a part: God's transmissible blessing called baraka. The last paragraph attempts to clarify why this collapse of traditional prestige afflicted dominant status groups (such as male Chorfa) more than sub-dominant groups such as Arab, Chorfa women.