#  Imazighen - Harvard in the Rif, 1926–1928 

 



 ![98520055](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520055.jpg)

 

Milk pot, Rif, Morocco. The techniques used to make this pottery are similar to those used by the women of Kabylia but the decorative motifs and coloring are quite different. 27-37-50/B4358

 ![98520054](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520054.jpg)

 

Water vessel with spout from the Rif, Morocco. Riffian pottery is known for its intricate painted designs and graceful shapes. 27-37-50/B4329

 ![98520058](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520058.jpg)

 

Milk pot from Rif, Morocco. Symbols incorporating elements of five, like those in the checkerboard and rosette patterns seen here, are found frequently on pottery from the Berber-speaking world 27-37-50/B4359

 ![98520065](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520065.jpg)

 

Jellaba, Rif, Morocco. The jellaba is a long robe with sleeves and a hood, found throughout North Africa. Now worn by women and men, they were in Carleton Coon's time worn only by men. 30-73-50/L189

 ![98520075](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520075.jpg)

 

Woman's shirt (dhaidhwarth), Rif, Morocco. This type of woman's shirt was just coming into fashion when Carleton Coon collected in Morocco and would have been worn with a red belt, from Spain. 45-24-50/5936

 ![98520059](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520059.jpg)

 

Leather and iron alloy cartridge belt (dhaghugat er knenth) made in Taghzuth (Tarhzout), Morocco. 30-73-50/L181

 ![98520062](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/2024-12/98520062.jpg)

 

Man's leather bag (dhaza'butsh), Rif, Morocco. This fine leather bag has a number of protective charms tied into its fringes. 30-73-50/L183

  
The Peabody Museum's collection of Amazigh arts has grown over time and largely reflects the ideas and preoccupations of an earlier generation of anthropologists. Carleton S. Coon (1904–1981, Harvard Ph.D. 1928) was among those early scholars intrigued by the Berber-speaking peoples. Coon did his doctoral fieldwork in the mountains of the Rif in northern Morocco in the late 1920s, gathering physical and cultural data he hoped would explain the racial origins of the light-skinned inhabitants of the Rif. His conclusion, that the “true” Riffians were most closely related to northern Europeans, was based on racial categories and research methods that are now outmoded. As Coon’s work itself shows, the history of migration and settlement in the region meant that the inhabitants of the Rif were bound together more by language and tradition than by physical characteristics.

When Coon first visited the Rif in 1926, the Rif War, in which Berber tribes led by the legendary warrior Abd al-Krim faced overwhelmingly superior French and Spanish forces, had just ended with the brutal suppression of the Riffians. Foreigners were regarded with suspicion, and Coon could not have carried out his research without the help of the many Riffians who provided him and his wife Mary with shelter and protection. Coon was especially indebted to Mohammed Limnibhy, who served as his guide, translator, research assistant, and friend throughout his time in Morocco. Coon’s later research took him to many other parts of the world, but he always retained a special emotional attachment to the Rif and its people.