Ins Land der Tuareg

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Ins Land der Tuareg

Ohne ZusammenfassungHierzu Taf. 1.     

Ritual Powers and Social Tensions as Moral Discourse among the Tuareg

Ritual powers traditionally glossed as "witchcraft" in anthropology need not be an archaic or exotic phenomenon, isolated from historical processes of global political and economic transformation. The author analyzes how, among the Kel Ewey Tuareg of northern Niger, these emerge as a moral discourse, an attempt to make sense of and cope with the interplay of long-standing social forms and emergent sociopolitical transformations.     

Distribution of adult lactase phenotypes in the Tuareg of Niger.

The adult lactase phenotype, lactose absorber or malabsorber, was determined using the lactose tolerance test with breath hydrogen assay in a group of Tuareg, a traditionally nomadic pastoralist population in the central Sahara. Out of a total of 118 subjects, 103 (87.3%) were lactose absorbers and 15 (12.7%) lactose malabsorbers. The frequency of the "lactase suppression gene" in this population sample was .357 (SD .043). The low frequency of lactase suppression in the Tuareg supports the hypothesis of natural selection in favor of the "lactase persistence gene" in milk-dependent nomadic pastoralist.     

Reflections on tamazai,a Tuareg idiom of suffering

In this essay, I explore ways in which the theatrical and the medical are inextricably mixed and affect each other, in the Nigerien Tuareg idiom of tamazai. Tamazai is locally-described as an illness of the heart and soul, not curable by Koranic verses, but by exorcism of spirits. A case study and analysis of healing rituals demonstrate how this idiom communicates women's relationships and empowers dramatic framing.     

Parallel and divergent landscapes: cultural encounters in the ethnographic space of Tuareg medicine

This essay explores the dialogue between the local quest for healing and the anthropological quest for healing knowledge, and local assessments of knowledge-power relationships in these processes. The context is medical discourse among the Tuareg of Niger Republic, West Africa, and my research experiences among these people. I examine local medical specialists and their traditional and changing practice in terms of how they perceive and respond to wider knowledge and power systems that impinge on local health care. Paramount in these systems are central state policies and medical anthropological research on healing, as these intersect in a postcolonial and post-separatist/rebellion setting. The essay analyzes parallels between the exchange of medicine and the exchange of knowledge and reflects upon how anthropological knowledge of African healing systems is constructed in an environment highly charged with power and danger--of political violence and economic crisis. The broader issue addressed here is how to give greater empowerment to local residents' voices in their "indigenous critique" of the medical anthropological project.     

The Poetics and Politics of Tuareg Aging: Life Course and Personal Destiny in Niger

The Poetics and Politics of Tuareg Aging: Life Course and Personal Destiny in Niger. Susan J. Rasmussen Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1997. 188 pp.     

Deep into the roots of the Libyan Tuareg: a genetic survey of their paternal heritage

Recent genetic studies of the Tuareg have begun to uncover the origin of this semi-nomadic northwest African people and their relationship with African populations. For centuries they were caravan traders plying the trade routes between the Mediterranean coast and south-Saharan Africa. Their origin most likely coincides with the fall of the Garamantes who inhabited the Fezzan (Libya) between the 1st millennium BC and the 5th century AD. In this study we report novel data on the Y-chromosome variation in the Libyan Tuareg from Al Awaynat and Tahala, two villages in Fezzan, whose maternal genetic pool was previously characterized. High-resolution investigation of 37 Y-chromosome STR loci and analysis of 35 bi-allelic markers in 47 individuals revealed a predominant northwest African component (E-M81, haplogroup E1b1b1b) which likely originated in the second half of the Holocene in the same ancestral population that contributed to the maternal pool of the Libyan Tuareg. A significant paternal contribution from south-Saharan Africa (E-U175, haplogroup E1b1a8) was also detected, which may likely be due to recent secondary introduction, possibly through slavery practices or fusion between different tribal groups. The difference in haplogroup composition between the villages of Al Awaynat and Tahala suggests that founder effects and drift played a significant role in shaping the genetic pool of the Libyan Tuareg.     

Female sexuality,social reproduction,and the politics of medical intervention in Niger: Kel Ewey Tuareg perspectives

This essay explores connections between political institutions, forms of power, and women's health care concerns from a cultural anthropological perspective. I focus on the roles of different medical establishments among the Kel Ewey Tuareg of Niger—Western-European sponsored, central state, traditional herbalism and Islamic scholarship—in creating, maintaining, and disputing these constructs, through the invention and elaboration of disease categories and through the selective application of medical and reproductive models and technology to women. I also explore women's attempts to manage these forces, as they draw upon a cultural inventory that is alternately supportive and in conflict with their interests.     

The Pastoral Tuareg: Ecology, Culture, and Society, vols. 1 and 2

The Pastoral Tuareg: Ecology, Culture, and Society, vols. and 2. Johannes Nicolaisen and Ida Nicolaisen. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.488 pp.     

Tuareg, a novel miniature-inverted repeat family of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) related to the PIF superfamily of maize

Miniature-inverted repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are abundantly repeated in plant genomes and are especially found in genic regions where they could contribute regulatory elements for gene expression. We describe with molecular and cytological tools the first MITE family reported in pearl millet: Tuareg. It was initially detected in the pearl millet ortholog of Teosinte-branched1, an important developmental gene involved in the domestication of maize. The Tuareg family was amplified recently in the pearl millet genome and elements were found more abundant in wild than in domesticated plants. We found that they shared similarity in their terminal repeats with the previously described mPIF MITEs and that they are also present in other Pennisetum species, in maize and more distantly related grasses. The Tuareg family may be part of MITEs activated by PIF-like transposases and it could have been mobile since pearl millet domestication. Electronic supplementary material Electronic supplementary material is available for this article at and accessible for authorised users. O. Robin contributed the FISH and fiber-FISH hybridizations.     

Remaking Body Politics: Dilemmas Over Female Fatness as Symbolic Capital in Two Rural Tuareg Communities

This essay explores nuanced, debated and changing meanings of female fatness as a bodily aesthetic ideal in rural Tuareg communities in northern Niger and Mali. I compare two communities—one where nomadic herding, of longstanding importance among the Tuareg, remains prevalent, and intermarriage is rare between aristocratic and formerly servile persons, and the other where residents have become more settled in hamlets, now garden, and where intermarriage between social categories is frequent. Both communities have experienced conflict with colonial and postcolonial nation-states, but the more nomadic herders have had especially tense relations with French colonial and postcolonial state regimes. Although many oasis residents express greater ambivalence toward female fatness, these communities do not express neatly polarized attitudes but admire it to varying degrees, for different reasons, and attach different meanings to it from their experience of different double-binds over achieving it. Fundamental to understanding these meanings, I argue, are psychosocial dilemmas arising from historical change and regional variation affecting power relationships between persons of aristocratic and those of servile origins, between husbands and wives and between nomadic herders and the nation-state. More broadly, these data show the importance of reversals of power in symbolic capital and suggest more nuanced processes surrounding body politics.     

Anthropology and genetics of the caucasus peoples and the problem of the origin of the caucasoids

The electrophoretical polymorphisms of some blood proteins were studied in the Talysh population of Pirasora situated in South-East Azerbaidjan. We calculated the gene frequencies of these polymorphisms and determined the genetic distances between the Talyshes and some Iranian populations of North, Central and South Iran, Afghans, and three populations of Azerbaijan. The Talyshes are very close to Iranians of Shiraz, whereas they are distant from the Azerbaijanians. Anthropological investigations showed that the Caucasoids and Mongoloids lived in the Aragvi Basin since the Eneolithic period. This was stated by Alexeev (1974), who emphasized the mixture of the Caucasus populations from ancient times on. We calculated the genetic distances between the Caucasus populations and numerous populations of other geographic regions, considering 28 alleles of 12 loci of blood group, serum protein and red cell enzyme polymorphisms and constructed the dendrogram of these populations. The position of the Caucasus populations in the dendrogram corresponds on principle to the earlier anthropological observations. The clustering of the Caucasoid populations corresponds completely with anthropological and historical data, and supports our earlier hypothesis (Nazarova 1999) concerning the differentiation of Caucasoids, Northern Mongoloids and Amerinds from the populations, which inhabitated Asia in palaeolithic times.     

On the structure and dynamics of the complex of the nucleosome and the linker histone

Several different models of the linker histone (LH)–nucleosome complex have been proposed, but none of them has unambiguously revealed the position and binding sites of the LH on the nucleosome. Using Brownian dynamics-based docking together with normal mode analysis of the nucleosome to account for the flexibility of two flanking 10 bp long linker DNAs (L-DNA), we identified binding modes of the H5-LH globular domain (GH5) to the nucleosome. For a wide range of nucleosomal conformations with the L-DNA ends less than 65 Å apart, one dominant binding mode was identified for GH5 and found to be consistent with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) experiments. GH5 binds asymmetrically with respect to the nucleosomal dyad axis, fitting between the nucleosomal DNA and one of the L-DNAs. For greater distances between L-DNA ends, docking of GH5 to the L-DNA that is more restrained and less open becomes favored. These results suggest a selection mechanism by which GH5 preferentially binds one of the L-DNAs and thereby affects DNA dynamics and accessibility and contributes to formation of a particular chromatin fiber structure. The two binding modes identified would, respectively, favor a tight zigzag chromatin structure or a loose solenoid chromatin fiber.     

Kinematics and dynamics of the temporomandibular joint and of the movements of the mandible

In order to analyze the complicated movements of the mandible as the open-closing movement and the protrusio are, it is useful to evaluate the basic kinematic principles and reduce them to simple technical constructions. Both the open-closing movement and the protrusio could be reduced to 4-bar links, which were used to simulate the movements with help of a computer. Besides, the polodes and the curves of points in the muscular attachments could be constructed. The 2 entirely different 4-bar links have 3 things in common: The resting system - cranium, the moving system - mandibula, and 1 of the 2 arms connecting these 2 systems - the ligamentum laterale. As this ligament is taut during movements it can be considered a "guiding ligament" representing 1 of the 3 determining components of the mandibular movements. The other of the 2 arms has no anatomical equivalent; this arm, however, is "replaced" by the 2 other determining components of the mandibular movements: the joint and the muscles. The curves, which the Caput mandibulae describes, are practically identical for the open-closing movement and the protrusio despite of the different 4-bar links and these curves exactly correspond to the Discus articularis, taut by the upper part of the M. pterygoideus lateralis. The muscles do not only just move the mandibula, but they are also the component, which can choose between the different mandibular movements. By means of the curves, which points in the muscular attachments describe, the function of the masticatory muscles could be analyzed exactly.