ABSTRACT
Research conducted in rural areas of the Maghreb over the past century documents a great diversity of collective musical practices. Sometimes the focus is on certain populations, while at other times the focus is on well-defined tribal groups. In their methodological approach to diversity, which tends to either isolate rural communities or propose connections between geographically distant communities based on ethnicity, these studies privilege a certain musical and cultural disunity on the southern shore of the Mediterranean. This chapter instead supports the idea of a coherent unity that is not ultimately in contradiction with the observed musical diversity of previous research: Based on fieldwork carried out in Morocco, examining how neighboring tribal groups interact with each other at local festivals and ceremonies, the author outlines a conception of musical unity that integrates not with that of homogeneity but rather with that of diversity. This, she argues, requires shifting our focus toward local socio-musical mechanisms that derive from a culture common to the southern shore of the Mediterranean and, rather than privileging stark divisions between populations, paying greater attention to the local distinctions that they seek to reinforce through their practices.
