"Dolls and Aesthetic Identity: A Reading of Amazigh Popular Beliefs and the Resistance to Cultural Alienation"
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In several Amazigh regions of Morocco, popular beliefs have traditionally surrounded pregnant women with symbolic restrictions. Among the most notable is the prohibition against looking at white dolls with blue or green eyes for extended periods. While this belief may appear naive on the surface, it reflects a profound cultural awareness aimed at protecting the local aesthetic identity from the infiltration of the "other's" representations. Features associated with the European beauty ideal—such as white skin, straight hair, and colored eyes—are not merely perceived as foreign, but as symbolic threats to the collective aesthetic model and as weakening the sense of belonging to Amazigh identity.
In this context, the doll represents more than just a toy; it becomes a "mirror" feared for what it reflects—external standards unconsciously implanted in the minds of the younger generation. Thus, traditional Amazigh society engaged in a form of cultural resistance through a seemingly simple yet effective belief that drew a line between self and other, between "authentic" beauty and "manufactured" beauty.
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"Dolls and Aesthetic Identity: A Reading of Amazigh Popular Beliefs and the Resistance to Cultural Alienation"
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In several Amazigh regions of Morocco, popular beliefs have traditionally surrounded pregnant women with symbolic restrictions. Among the most notable is the prohibition against looking at white dolls with blue or green eyes for extended periods. While this belief may appear naive on the surface, it reflects a profound cultural awareness aimed at protecting the local aesthetic identity from the infiltration of the "other's" representations. Features associated with the European beauty ideal—such as white skin, straight hair, and colored eyes—are not merely perceived as foreign, but as symbolic threats to the collective aesthetic model and as weakening the sense of belonging to Amazigh identity.
In this context, the doll represents more than just a toy; it becomes a "mirror" feared for what it reflects—external standards unconsciously implanted in the minds of the younger generation. Thus, traditional Amazigh society engaged in a form of cultural resistance through a seemingly simple yet effective belief that drew a line between self and other, between "authentic" beauty and "manufactured" beauty.
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