Morocco, a crossroads of ancient traditions, religious beliefs, and seasonal rites, comes vividly to life in Edward Westermarck’s essay Midsummer Customs in Morocco.
Price range: £4.99 through £12.99
Price range: £4.99 through £12.99
| Author |
Edward Westermarck |
|---|---|
| Imprint |
Pierides Press |
| Categories |
Cultural Studies History Nature & Natural World Regional & National History Seasons Society & Culture Society & Social Sciences Weather & Climate |
| ISBN | 9781445520667, 9781447483342 |
| Formats Available | |
| Pages | 36 |
| Publication Date | 03 August 2010, 31 January 2013 |
| Weight | 58 kg |
| Dimensions | 5.5 × 8.5 in |
Morocco, a crossroads of ancient traditions, religious beliefs, and seasonal rites, comes vividly to life in Edward Westermarck’s essay Midsummer Customs in Morocco.
Drawing on first-hand observations and oral histories collected from rural communities at the turn of the twentieth century, Westermarck documents Morocco’s midsummer rituals. From fire festivals to magical practices and the symbolic use of plants and water, these traditions reveal a complex history of Berber, Arab, Islamic, and pre-Islamic influences.
Both anthropological in scope and ethnographic in detail, this essay offers a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the living folklore of Morocco’s peasantry in the early 1900s.
First published in 1905, Westermarck’s account is reissued here as part of the Folklore History Series, which recovers the early records of folklore and seasonal custom for modern readers. Drawn from years of fieldwork, it is an essential read for anyone drawn to the anthropology of North Africa, the study of midsummer rites, and the folk traditions that still endure.
Edward Westermarck (1862–1939) spent the best part of three decades among the communities of Morocco, beginning in 1898, and few outsiders have recorded its folk life so closely. Midsummer Customs in Morocco first appeared in 1905, and it remains one of the clearest windows onto the country’s seasonal rites at the turn of the twentieth century.
We have reissued it as part of our Folklore History Series. Ours is an edition for the folklorist, the anthropologist, and anyone curious about the traditions that shape a Morocco.
Midsummer Customs in Morocco began as a paper in the journal Folk-Lore, published in 1905, and Westermarck later drew its findings into his major study Ritual and Belief in Morocco (1926).
By then he held the chair of sociology at the London School of Economics, dividing his life between Finland, London, and the Moroccan field – a reminder that this short essay sits at the foundation of one of the era’s landmark works of anthropology.
This edition features:
Price range: £4.99 through £12.99
Morocco, a crossroads of ancient traditions, religious beliefs, and seasonal rites, comes vividly to life in Edward Westermarck’s essay Midsummer Customs in Morocco.
