Symbolic domination; cultural form and historical change in Morocco

by Paul Rabinow

This book concerns the descendants of a Moroccan marabout, Sidi Lahsen Lyusi, collectively known as the wlad Siyyed ("children of the saint"), who live in a small village near Sefrou, Morocco. Paul Rabinow describes how the wlad sivved have maintained their symbolic and practical dominance over the so-called commoners of the village, persons who cannot claim such descent. He suggests that despite major vicissitudes in Moroccan society over the last century and some significant challenges from the commoners, the wlad siyyed have maintained their hegemony, but at the price of alienation and self-doubt. Alienation, one of the author's theoretical concerns, is "the attempt to maintain a fixed sense of symbolism once other conditions have shifted" (p. 1). In the course of this discussion the author makes interesting, if brief, observations on the nature of social identity in Morocco and the dominant symbols through which Moroccans perceive their society. -- From https://www.jstor.org (Sep.