ABSTRACT
This study revisits tree domestication processes in the Mediterranean region through analyzing practices and symbolic meanings around olive (Olea europaea) and fig (Ficus carica) among the Jbala society in the Rif Mountains (Morocco). These trees co-planted with cereals structure Jbala agroecosystems across traditional Mediterranean landscapes. At the opposite of the dichotomy established by scholars in studies of tree domestication that strongly distinguish wild and domesticated, the Jbala develop concrete practices such as fig caprification (pollination) of female fig varieties or grafting of olive varieties on wild olive that favor ecological linkages between the categories “wild” and “domesticated”. Fig and olive trees are locally seen as agents of their own domestication. Fig trees invite themselves in domestic environments and protect people’s houses and are in turn protected; wild olives are a mediator of the Baraka, God’s benediction that leads people to protect the latter. They in turn guarantee human’s livelihood and cultural identity. This study portrays domestication as a set of interactions that includes tree agency and specific ecologies, taming of pollinating insects, grafting of the wild with the cultivated, naming and classifications, land appropriation as well as religion and the role of subtle non-tangible jnûn that inhabit nature, trees and domestic realms.
