Amazighi folk tale and its role in developing values

Abstract

The Amazighi tale has become of enormous interest to researchers; however. The diversity of the amazighi tales poses a difficult problem which requires a selective process of each individual tale to dissect the essence of itscharacteristics and distinguish it from others. For each tale carries human materialistic, philosophical, existential and universal concerns. It derives its topics from human culture in general and it is adapted to local linguistic, aesthetic and cultural norms, which differ according to geographical and sociocultural characteristics of each group. From this standpoint the Amazighi tale depicts different collective socio-economic practices that not only portray society as a common entity, but also stress upon the importance of unity and collectivism. The amazighi tale constitutes a hidden symbolic expression that occupies a wide area in the cultural repository of the amazighi community; in this framework it constitutes an important cultural heritage created by the amazighi folk imagination as an expression of its wisdom and experience in depicting life events and life ways beyond, which many educational, psychological and social objectives were realized to educate generations, and for other generations to live. Taking about the Amazighi tale “tahajijt” or “laqist” requires referring to it as an oral literature that has not yet found its way to documentation compared to other components of the amazighi culture. Thus, this Amazighi style remains academically unknown for it did not get its share of research. And this makes it more difficult to conduct deepened studies about it. This research aims to reveal a side of the symbolic non-material foundations of the Amazighi people as a starting point to understanding their nature and practices. Thus, Due to the abundance of Amazighi tales this research will present the tale of the hedgehog and the wolf as it depicts reality in its most intricate details and in all its contradictions (good and evil)