From fieldwork conducted from 1995 to 2000 among the Aït Khebbach, an Aït Atta group of the Tafilalet, Marie-Luce Gélard distinguishes three uses of an animal's shed blood: protection, the request for amends and the integration of a foreign group. Temporary protection granted to a stranger is called amur; the expression bab n-umur, “the man of the lance”, designates in her account the head of a tribe or section (2004, PDF pp. 3-10), whereas Hart uses it for the representative of a lineage (1984, p. 8).
Lasting protection was obtained by sacrificing an animal on the protector's threshold (“to slaughter upon”, ighras ghuf). The Aït Khebbach thus protected oases in exchange for a fifth of their dates, or caravans from the Draa to the Touat; in 1909 the Beni Mhammed obtained their protection for a quintal of wheat per family per year (Gélard, PDF pp. 3-4, after D. Jacques-Meunié). The Rteb customary code published by Ahda provides a similar rite for a stranger who wishes to settle in a ksar: a sheep slaughtered before the gate, then a second one for the section that becomes his guarantor and will supply his co-jurors (2001, p. 106).
Making amends for an offence, up to murder, also goes through sacrifice: once the animal's blood has touched the ground, forgiveness can no longer be refused without “cutting the blood” between the two families. Refugee groups, often driven from their tribe after a crime of honour, were integrated by “slaughtering” with one of the four founding sections of the Aït Khebbach: they became members of the tribe but kept the memory of their origin and remained subject to marriage prohibitions, “well integrated”, Gélard writes, “never assimilated” (PDF pp. 8-10).
Alliance between equal groups went through another symbol, milk. Co-lactation (tada), described by colonial-era authors as a drawing of lots with sandals or a mixing of milks, “is no longer a contemporary practice”, Gélard notes, but former pacts still forbid marriage between certain lineages, called tiferrganin, “closed” (PDF pp. 11-14). The Aït Khebbach sum it up: “milk is stronger than blood” (agho ichqa ugar n-idamn).
Assisted translation, not validated
⚠ Gélard's observations concern the Aït Khebbach; extending them to the whole confederation is not demonstrated. Her descriptions of co-lactation partly draw on colonial authors (Surdon, Marcy, Aspinion), whom she invites readers to approach with “reasonable but systematic circumspection” (PDF p. 12, n. 47).
Sources — 3 sources cited · 3 independent documentary line(s)