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❖ 4 ❖ NEO-TRADITIONALISM IN TEBOURBA First settled by farmers from Andalusia, Tebourba has been home to a community for over ¤ve hundred years. Rolling hills full of olive trees line one side of the town. The ®at plains are covered with wheat ¤elds, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens. Farming is done next to houses in town and in surrounding areas . The Medjerda River, whose source is located in Algeria, provides irrigation. An understanding of local politics in Tebourba can begin with a description of my visit to the délégué. His of¤ce is located in a white cinderblock compound on the outskirts of the old medina, or city. An elderly man in traditional dress greeted me and offered me a chair and tea for the long wait involved in any effort to meet with the town’s understandably busy highest-ranking of¤cial . A handmade poster on the wall indicated the approaching deadline for presenting titles to land on the outskirts of cooperatives scheduled to be turned over to private management. While waiting, I was moved from room to room down a hallway where low-ranking bureaucrats inquired about the reason for my visit and greeted friends and acquaintances. During almost all working hours this is a bustling place. Farmers from outside the town center come in to voice grievances about the widespread lack of land titles, which hinders efforts to obtain credit, or with simpler concerns, like obtaining a birth certi¤cate. In a general way, this has become a place to make demands of the patron state. Though most people claim that they have gotten very little from the state, nearly all can cite occasions when they have gone directly to the délégué to request such things as ¤nancial help for a sick relative or that their status as a cooperative worker be passed down to their offspring. It is well known that a much higher percentage of requests are granted at election time. Eventually I was summoned to the délégué’s of¤ce. It is enormous and slightly regal in furnishing, with the délégué’s large red felt chair as the centerpiece . The délégué informed me right away that everything in this town is his business and province. We discussed community solidarity and the délégué’s awareness of minor and major events in town. During two of my three visits, he pointedly placed a call to the governor. The gesture emphasized the concentric circles of state power. Poor informants have recounted stories of being treated with contempt for daring to ask for a favor, and also tales of empathy, involving for instance the rapid delivery of an expensive medicine.At least once a week, the délégué’s of¤ce is used for meetings with Tebourba’s "umad. A community with Tebourba’s longevity develops an identity that can be discovered by examining the expectations that community members have of one another. In contemporary times community norms still provide a set of expectations. The rules of behavior in Tebourba are sometimes ignored, but are followed widely enough to reveal themselves to the outside observer. First, in desperate times one can turn to extended family members for help to survive. Second, the wealthy provide a range of goods and services to the poor: employment , gifts of grain and other agricultural products during the harvest and during the Islamic festivals of Ramadan, al"Eid al-Kabir and al"Eid as-Saghir; the use of their land for grazing; and, in the cases of loyal clients, loans and intermediation in economic and bureaucratic transactions. The poorest of the poor are to receive alms and the zakat from the wealthy and the middle class. Third, the poor provide the wealthy with labor services at low cost, and grant prestige and high social standing to those who follow the second rule. Last, people keep a mental account of favors granted, whether large or small, and reciprocate when possible. Related to this, community members are expected to continuously build up their connections and relations with people both within and outside the community. The actions of state of¤cials in Tebourba ¤t into these traditional patterns of behavior. State patronage serves as another means for the poor to solicit resources in exchange for their support of more powerful people. The Islamic welfare mechanisms would have been much less effective by now, due to the free-rider problem associated with public goods...

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