A translation of a 2010 edition in Spanish, Health and Ritual in Morocco presents a sociohistorical compendium of Moroccan ideas and practices concerning health. With this volume, historian Josep Lluís Mateo Dieste has made a solid contribution to literature on the anthropology of health and the body in Morocco. Dieste divides Moroccan health practices into several categories, including humoral beliefs about heat and cold first systematized in ancient Greece, Prophetic medicine, Sufi traditions, magic, and biomedicine, the latter of which was first imported by the French and the Spanish. All are employed in varying degrees today. The systems are not mutually exclusive; syncretism occurs and people sometimes seek treatment from multiple sources to better their chances of effective outcomes. Most Moroccans have a favorable view of biomedicine, yet due to inadequate access and socioeconomic constraints, they sometimes continue to resort to other systems.
This wide-ranging book explores Islamic as well as local cultural conceptions of the body and health in Morocco. In addition to an exploration of how the different Moroccan health systems interact, the author delves into conceptions of personhood, life passages, physical and mental illness, sexuality, and reproduction. The book is well organized, and translator Martin Beagles does a fine job rendering Dieste's prose into English. Many of these topics, particularly rituals, will be familiar to specialists of Morocco; however, having them combined in one volume is valuable. The book is thoroughly researched and well referenced, with useful footnotes for topical works in multiple languages.
Dieste, who also has a degree in anthropology, offers insightful observations on the relative strengths of different healthcare traditions, particularly as they interact with societal changes brought about by processes such as colonialism and a more globalized Islam. Although most of his sources are historical, the author draws on anthropological theories and methodologies and states a goal of exploring “the problems of change and power in notions of the body and approaches to its treatment” (p. 2). He connects the increased influence of Islamism in Morocco, for example, to a renewed interest in the techniques of prophetic medicine and a condemnation of practices believed to be associated with magic, evil forces, or superstition. Dieste accounts for cultural and historical changes not only in religiosity, but also in ideas of what constitutes appropriate observance of Islam, and how these ideas affect beliefs and rules governing bodily conduct, hygiene, and comportment. The interplay between Islam and culture is particularly evocative, as changes from the colonial period to the present have given weight to certain practices (such as exorcism by means of Qurʾanic recitation) at the expense of others (such as unorthodox techniques for the maintenance of spirit possession). Nonetheless, it is notable that some concepts, such as humoral beliefs in “heat” or “cold,” remain strong in Moroccan conceptualizations of illness and healing.
Dieste notes in his introduction that “we need to ask ourselves whether a unified Moroccan culture actually exists,” suggesting that despite his attempt to offer an exhaustive list of practices, individual Moroccans do not necessarily adhere to all of them. Rural-urban disparities in Morocco are stark, and in addition to the rural/urban divide, local practices and conceptualizations of health can be extremely different from region to region. Yet because this book is so far reaching in its scope, the author oftentimes makes generalizations about current practices that may be in greater decline in Moroccan society at large than the book would imply. Dieste cites breastfeeding, to give but one example, as a highly regarded practice, using statistics from 1997 that he then backs up with a few pages of evidence from much older Islamic legal texts, one or two recent articles, and classic historical studies from the early 20th century. However, more recent UNICEF statistics from 2003, which are not mentioned in the book, show breastfeeding to be in steep decline, particularly among the poor, a fact that accompanies other globalization-related changes such as the introduction of heavy marketing campaigns by multinational baby formula companies.
In another example, the author briefly mentions the unresolved conflict between premarital sexuality and Islam, but says little about the thorny social issue of single mothers, who were thought to number around 27,000 in 2009. Other discussions related to an understanding of the body, such as the experiences and perceptions of physical disabilities, are also notably absent from this book. A more contemporary perspective on issues such as these, which have been discussed with unprecedented openness in the Moroccan media since 2000, would have enhanced the book. Dieste occasionally provides brief anecdotal observations from northern Morocco, yet further ethnographic fieldwork would have been a welcome addition to his assertions. Because the book aims to cover so many topics, it would be unreasonable to expect the author to have conducted fieldwork to verify them all, yet the effect is often that older literature implies the continuation of contemporary practices that may have radically changed in recent years. A more minor issue, which is nonetheless puzzling, is that there are a few odd word deviations from standard Arabic lexicography: on three occasions, for example, the author refers to the creation story as involving “Adam and Hiba,” when the Arabic word for Eve is Hawa.
Overall, Health and Ritual in Morocco offers a useful survey of the complex history of health and healing in Morocco. Medical anthropology issues in Morocco are understudied relative to the country's significance in the broader cultural anthropology literature, and this book will therefore be useful to specialists as well as those interested more broadly in comparing health, ritual, and healing practices across the Middle East and North Africa.
