ASC-075287668-2887-01

REVOLUTION: TESHUMARA AND TANEKRA 211their moustache and grew beards following the example of the prophet Muhammad.Some ishumar even went further. They wrapped the shortened eghewidaround their necks as a shawl – an expression of utter despair – or gave upwearing an eghewid altogether, even in the presence of women. 46This is but one small aspect of the notable changes in gender relations alsotaking shape in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the change from a pastoral to anurban wage economy. 47 Most telling about changing perceptions of gender relations,productivity and the female body, but perhaps also expressing a changingperception of the economic and ecologic environment, was the diminishingpractice of female fattening. Fewer women would try to become as big as possible,which would involve consuming no longer available amounts of calories,while the fattened body would hamper their mobility and activity in a world ofmigration where slaves and men were no longer available to depend upon in animmobile life without work. 48 Besides, standards of beauty and sexual attractivenesschanged in general. While round female bodies are still seen as embodyingfemale social beauty, fertility and sexual activity, as the pillar of thehousehold, Western influences on the perception of the female body slowlycrept in, leading men to express preference for women who are not too slim andnot too fat either. 49 But with increased mobility in an urban landscape came theloss of female control over domestic space through a loss of ownership of thedomestic space par excellence. In pastoral society, the tent and accompanyinghousehold items are a woman’s possession, presented to her at her first marriageby her mother and female relatives. Her husband is only living in it, untilthe marriage is dissolved, when he becomes homeless. In urban society, thehouse is often built or rented by a man, who then lodges his wife. In the case ofdivorce, it is she who has to look for other living space. The dowry changedconsiderably as well, especially among the wealthier évolué city dwellers, muchless so among the ‘true’ ishumar. Where it used to consist of practical householdutensils, it now became fashionable among those who had found a morefixed residence to include a large wooden cabinet filled with all kinds of trinkets:A mixture of china, small statues, picture frames, silk flowers, small ‘traditional’Tamasheq leather objects, mosque shaped clocks, or snow globes with46474849At present, a reverse trend is visible. Many former ishumar took to wearing theeghewid again after the end of the rebellion of the 1990s. This might well be anindication of a general sense of reinstated honour. Kohl argues that in present-dayishumar culture standards of beauty and vestimentary habits have gained importancebut show a clear shift away from western clothing, although soccer shirts and trainersremain popular among men. Kohl, I. 2009: 22.Achterberg, van, A. 1988.Popenoe, R. 2004: 121-122.Kohl, I. 2009: 68-75.