Symmetry in the Life of the Aurès Chaouia Tribes

Symmetry in the Life of the Aurès Chaouia Tribes

Nourredine Benali-Cherif, Institut des Sciences Exactes, Technologie et Informatique, Centre Universitaire de Khenchela. 40000-Khenchela, Algérie.


Chaouias, free, proud and rebellious tribes of Aurès, live in the south-east of Algeria. The influence that they exert in the fields of the history, art, poetry, the culture in general... is not any more to show: pottery, carpets, sculpture, architecture, painting, songs, dances, tattooings and Silver jewels. Symmetry is omnipresent in the life of Chaouias, on the splendid carpets of Nememchas, Tchouchanats of tattooed Azriyat of the Oued Abdi with richly coloured M’lahfat. The symmetrical forms and the periodic drawings of Chaouias crossed the centuries, transmitted without the least wrinkle from generation to generation, in spite of the passage of the Romans, Arabic, Turkish and French.

Keywords: Chaouia, Aurès, symmetry.