……Unravelled…..
The Ethnographic Story of Sefrou’s La’kaad Buttons
May 2024 – Ongoing
Sefrou handmade buttons are an essential element of Moroccan dress, and are made by women. They adorn women’s and men’s clothing, both the everyday and those used for rituals during the Eid sacrifice or Ramadan, and important events such as weddings and circumcisions. As a defining element of national dress, these buttons are imbued with more than just economic meaning. For 3 weeks, SAMA volunteers connected Sefrou’s artisans to 26 students from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University’s Moroccan Cultural Studies program and Brigham Young University’s anthropology department to ethnographically film and document the social worlds of the button. Students will be narrating this footage into a documentary film in fall 2024, and the film will be made available to Sefroui residents the following year.
For more in-depth information:
Anthropology and Cultural Encounters (ACE) Engagement Program
June 2023 – Ongoing
SAMA’s academic project stream tackles the complexities of decolonizing higher education in Morocco, focusing on the Old Medina in Sefrou. Recognizing the need for diverse perspectives in academia, the project *ACE aims to translate and publish anthropological texts written on Sefrouian society and studies internationally from English to Classical Arabic, as well as relevant articles from Arabic to English, fostering dialogue and accessibility.
The initiative is a response to a historical gap in access to academic discourse for Arabic speakers and the Dariija / Tamazight Sefrouian community alike, particularly regarding ethnographic research conducted by scholars like Clifford and Hildred Geertz, Paul Robinow, Laurence Rosen amongst other prestigious internationally acclaimed Anglophone anthropologists. By translating and disseminating these texts, SAMA seeks to empower Moroccan academia and the local community to engage critically with scientific studies on Sefrous society and contribute to the discourse.
For more detailed information click HERE.
