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Examines the concept of aging among the Tuareg rites of passage in West Africa. Relationship between aging and increasing religious devotions; Difference between the wedding ceremony of older and younger couples; Association between changing ritual participation and transformed social status for aging women and men.

Examines the relationship between the subjective experience and ritual process of the techawait postmarital residence ritual among the Tuareg, a seminomadic Muslim people of Niger, West Africa. Overview on the Tuareg techawait rite; Context of the ritual; Sentiment and affect in the techawait ritual; Implications for theories of emotion, gender, and rites of passage.

Throughout much anthropological literature, there are debates concerning the nature of social relationships in gift-giving (Mauss 1925; Parry 1986; Parry and Bloch 1989; Godelier 1999). There are also debates concerning the nature of personal relationships and social and ritual communication between humans and ancestors (Kopytoff 1971; Brain 1973; Fortes 1976; Steadman, Palmer, and Tilley 1996). Few works, however, have explored the interconnections between these domains: gift-giving, aged social and ritual status, and mortuary rituals addressing ancestors. This essay explores the relationship between alms, elders, and ancestor beliefs among the Tuareg of Niger, West Africa. Many Tuareg explicitly associate elderhood with takote, a term denoting alms or charity. Elders predominate during the condolence phase of Tuareg mortuary rituals. This phase features commemorative meals conceptualized as takote alms offerings and believed to confer benediction. The prominence of takote in Tuareg mortuary rituals expresses communication between the dead and their descendants. I explore this communication as a reflection on changing relations between the generations, local religion, and historical memory. The goal is to contribute to integrating age, ancestor beliefs, and gift-giving in anthropological theory. (Ancestors, age, life course, ritual, gift-giving) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses about a specific praise performance among the Tuareg people of Niger, West Africa called tebategh which is a smith dance. Tuareg Blacksmith Theater as an experience; Discussion of the tension between play and seriousness in dance and tebategh's in-jokes; Tebategh as media event; Presentation of the wedding ritual; Games and interference between play and war; Analysis of tebategh's location.

Presents an article analyzing the beliefs and relationship of food preparation, eating and the body in the social customs of persons living in Tuareg in Niger, West Africa. Examination of how strength, fragility and activity plays an importance part on society; Analysis of food and conversion during eating.

In field narratives and symbolic studies the anthropologist's space as well as local social and symbolic space have been the subject of much reflection. This essay situates ethnographic practice at the intersection of local social and symbolic space and field space among the Tuareg, a semi-nomadic community in northern Republic of Niger, West Africa. It contributes to further refinement in documenting the mutuality of field encounters. I explore the role of tent as property in local ritual and in interactions in my fieldwork. The tent is a forum for control over intellectual as well as material property, and for alternately conflictual and dialogical construction of anthropological knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]