TRIBAL MARKETS IN SPANISH MOROCCO1

Abstract

WITHIN the frontiers of Spanish Morocco there are more than a hundred tribal markets. (See Fig. I.) They are held weekly and a large variety of goods ranging from live animals and grain to Oriental spices and North African medicines, changes hands there. In addition, services such as those of the footwear-repairers, barber-bleeders, and shoeing smiths, are in active demand at all but the smallest markets. But the buying and selling of goods and services is by no means their only function. Legal work and local administration are carried on. There are opportunities for social intercourse; friends separated by miles of country during the rest of the week enjoy each other's company, intrigue, and revive common hatreds. All and sundry enjoy the entertainments provided by representatives of several fraternities. News items concerning the larger world are gathered through gossip or from the market-criers. Commands of the authorities are heard there and discussed at length. Religious zeal is rekindled through contact with the living saints present, and by visiting the shrine which is to be found near almost every market. Many take the opportunity of the certain presence of jnin (spirits) at the market, to practice magic. Further, in the past, many of these gatherings were the scenes of the public blinding with red-hot irons of notorious brigands, and of the begging of blood-money to expiate an indigent murderer's crime, as of many other practices of public or private import. Therefore, the weekly market has always been definitely more important in the life of the countryside than a mere place and means for the exchanging of goods and services. Indeed, making an analogy between tribe and nation-state, it can be said that, in the past, the