The Saoura: Memory, Place, and the Living Construction of Identity

Cultural heritage is far more than relics of the past; it is a living memory, constantly renewed in the hearts and minds of communities. It shapes how people see themselves, how they feel they belong, and how they connect the present to what has come before. Heritage is where the material meets the symbolic, the historical meets the lived experience—it is not just preserved, it is continually reinterpreted and made meaningful today. In this sense, Maurice Halbwachs (1992) reminds us that collective memory is not a static archive of the past but a dynamic framework through which societies understand and reimagine their histories in ways that speak to the present.
It is with this perspective that this issue of Turath turns to the Saoura region. The Saoura is not just a geographic space; it is a place brimming with significance, where human traces, stories, and rituals intertwine with the landscape itself. Its rock engravings, ancient ksour, and vibrant cultural practices make it a living “site of memory,” as Pierre Nora (1989) conceptualized—a place where history, representation, and identity converge.
This focus is particularly meaningful in the context of celebrating the Amazigh New Year (Yennayer). More than a festive occasion, Yennayer is a moment of symbolic continuity, when the community reconnects with its past while renewing its presence in the present. As Eric Hobsbawm (1983) observed, traditions are living entities—they evolve, adapt, and are reinvented over time, yet retain the roots that give them coherence and depth.
Through history, the Saoura has been a space of movement and encounter. Caravan routes intersected here, cultures mingled, and ideas circulated. Out of this history emerges a unique identity that balances diversity with continuity. To capture this richness, this issue draws on a multidisciplinary approach, combining social anthropology and cultural geography, to explore the deep connections between people and place. It aligns with Henri Lefebvre (1991), who reminds us that space is not a neutral backdrop but the product of human practice, memory, and imagination.
The region’s rock engravings offer especially vivid testimony to this long human presence. They are pages of a distant past, etched into stone by people who left traces of their lives and ideas. But interpreting this “engraved memory” requires care and rigor, drawing on archaeology and historical anthropology, to honor the context of its creation. Recent studies in Algeria (Deridi, 2016; Bouafia, 2019) show that Saharan heritage is not a simple collection of sites or artifacts—it is an integrated system where natural and cultural forces meet, reflecting the specificity of local social experience.
This issue aims not merely to describe or catalog, but to open new avenues of thought. It seeks to connect theory with fieldwork, to examine the material and symbolic layers of heritage, and to explore its links with Amazigh identity, a cornerstone of national identity (Marzouki, 2012; Chafik, 2000). It also looks at how these practices have transformed in contemporary times, especially as interest in heritage preservation and creative reuse grows.
Cultural institutions, such as the Béni Abbès Museum and the Saoura Cultural Park, play an essential role in this process. They safeguard heritage, not as frozen artifacts, but as living resources, open to interpretation and renewal. Their work also opens exciting possibilities for sustainable development, from geotourism to heritage education, while maintaining a careful balance between use and protection.
Ultimately, this issue is an invitation to reconsider our relationship with heritage—not as a closed chapter of the past, but as a living horizon of knowledge, reflection, and creativity. The Saoura, with its rich landscapes and layered history, reminds us that places are never neutral: they hold stories, meanings, and memories. And in this interplay lies their power—to turn human experience into memory, and memory into a continually renewed sense of identity.
Building on this perspective, Turath warmly invites researchers and PhD candidates in the humanities and social sciences to share their work. The journal encourages contributions that draw on diverse disciplinary approaches and explore themes such as collective memory, changing spaces, cultural practices, heritage valorization, and questions of identity. Through this call, Turath seeks to nurture meaningful scholarly exchange and encourage deeper reflection on how heritage continues to evolve in today’s world.
Deadline for submission of articles: Authors are invited to send their contributions through the ASJP platform via the following link and respect the template provided: https://asjp.cerist.dz/en/PresentationRevue/920

Bibliography
• Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory (L. A. Coser, Trans.). University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1950)
• Nora, P. (1989). Between memory and history : Les lieux de mémoire. Représentations,
26, 7–24.
• Nora, P. (Ed.). (1984–1992). Les lieux de mémoire (Vols. 1–3). Gallimard.
• Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (Eds.). (1983). The invention of tradition. Cambridge
University Press.
• Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Blackwell. (Original work published 1974)
• Assmann, J. (2011). Cultural memory and early civilization : Writing, Remembrance,
and Political Imagination. Cambridge University Press.
• Ricoeur, P. (2004). Memory, history, forgetting. trans. Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2004), xvii+642 pages.
• Lowenthal, D. (1998). The heritage crusade and the spoils of history. Cambridge
University Press.
• بوعافية، أحمد. (2019). توظيف تراث إقليم الساورة في الرواية الجزائرية. مجلة آفاق علمية، 11(3)،
399–418.
• شفيق، محمد. (2003) لمحة عن ثلاثة وثلاثين قرناً من تاريخ الأمازيغيين. دار أنفوبرانت (Infoprint)، الرباط.

For any information, please contact the following email address:
turath@crasc.dz / service.revues@crasc.dz