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Berbers are not an entirely homogeneous ethnicity, and they include a range of societies, ancestries, and lifestyles. The unifying forces for the Berber people may be their shared language or a collective identification with Berber heritage and history. As a legacy of the spread of Islam, the Berbers are now mostly Sunni Muslim.
The traditional Berber religion is the sum of ancient and native set of beliefs and deities adhered to by the Berbers.Originally, the Berbers seem to have believed in worship of the sun and moon, animism and in the afterlife, but interactions with the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans influenced religious practice and merged traditional faiths with new ones.
It is possible that the Barghawata confederacy had a Judeo-Berber background, though accounts of entire Berber tribes practicing Judaism appear later and are unreliable. [ 7 ] : 167 While most Jewish communities from Ifriqiya westward through the Maghreb, the Sahara, and al-Andalus were primarily urban, the indigenous Judeo-Berbers of the ...
As in other rural Berber traditions, jewellery made of silver, coloured glass or iron is a special artform of the Tuareg people. [ 109 ] [ 110 ] While in other Berber cultures in the Maghreb jewelry is mainly worn by women, Tuareg men also wear necklaces, amulets and rings.
The English term "Berber" is derived from the Arabic word barbar, which means both "Berber" and "barbarian." [7] [21] [22] Due to this shared meaning, as well as its historical background as an exonym, the term "Berber" is commonly viewed as a pejorative by indigenous North Africans today. [8] [9] [10]
Berber tribes are tribes of Berber descent inhabiting the Maghreb region. They are traditionally divided into three large tribal confederations: Masmuda , Zenata and Sanhaja . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] They often form smaller confederations of tribes together (for example the Haha or the Ait Yafelman ).
The Kabyle people (/ k ə ˈ b aɪ l /, Kabyle: Izwawen or Leqbayel or Iqbayliyen, pronounced [iqβæjlijən], Arabic: القبائل, romanized: al-qabā'il) [12] [13] are a Berber ethnic group indigenous to Kabylia in the north of Algeria, spread across the Atlas Mountains, 160 kilometres (100 mi) east of Algiers.
People of Berber origin in United States have created several associations with goal of maintaining and strengthening their language and culture, such as the Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA), [1] The United Amazigh Algerian (UAAA), [2] The Amazigh American Association of Washington, D.C., and the Boston Amazigh Community.