Aït Atta

The Ait Atta (Tamazight: ⴰⵢⵜ ⵄⵟⵟⴰ) are a large Berber tribal confederation of South eastern Morocco, estimated to number about 130,000 as of 1960. They are divided into "five fifths" (khams khmas), all said to descend from the forty sons of their common ancestor Dadda Atta: these "fifths" are the Ait Ouallal, Ait Ouahlim, Ait Isfoul, Ait Yazza and Ait Ounbgi. They speak Central Atlas Tamazight.

The Ait Atta originated as a political entity in the Jbel Saghro region in the 16th century with the founding of their traditional capital Igherm Amazdar. They subsequently expanded first northwards, becoming rivals of the Ait Yafelman, then southwards, taking control of oases in Tafilalt and the Draa River. By the 19th century their raids went as far as Touat (in modern-day Algeria, then beloging to the Moroccan Empire). They resisted the French entry into Morocco until 1933.

At each tribal level, the head was traditionally elected according to the principles of rotation and complementarity: each lineage took turns to occupy the position, but when it was a particular lineage's turn to hold the office, only members of other lineages could choose the candidate. In ordinary circumstances, power traditionally rested mainly with local councils of family heads, the ajmu`, who decided cases according to customary law, izerf. In the oases they conquered, the Ait Atta originally dominated a stratified society, where the haratin who worked the land were often forbidden from owning it, and needed a protection agreement with an Ait Atta patron; this stratification has considerably receded since Moroccan independence with the establishment of legal equality.

Atta

Atta or ATTA may refer to:

Name

Atta (genus)

Atta is a genus of New World ants of the subfamily Myrmicinae. It contains at least 17 known species.

Leaf-cutter ants are relatively large, rusty red or brown in colour, and have a spiny body and long legs. The three main castes within a nest are the queen, worker and soldier. Only the queens and males have wings, and these ants are also known as 'reproductives' or 'swarmers'. Although most of the ants in the nest are female, only the queens produce eggs. Queens are usually over 20 mm long.

Overview

Ants of the genus Atta are leafcutter ants that comprise one of the two genera of leafcutting ants within the tribe Attini, along with Acromyrmex.

Atta is one of the most spectacular of the attines, with colonies that can comprise in excess of one million individuals.

Atta exhibits a high degree of polymorphism, with four castes being present in established colonies: minims (or 'garden ants'), minors, mediae, and majors (also called soldiers or dinergates).

The high degree of polymorphism in this genus is also suggestive of its high degree of advancement. Every caste has a specific function, and some remarkably advanced phenomena have been observed in Atta species. An example of such is the behaviour of the minim ants, which climb on the cut sections of leaf while they are carried back to the nest by the media workers to protect the latter from a particular species of phorid fly that parasitises the leaf-carrying caste. While hitchhiking, the minims also work to decontaminate the fragment before it arrives at the nest, and feed on the sap of the leaf. That the minims behave in this way demonstrates the highly derived character of the species.

Ātman (Hinduism)

Ātman (/ˈɑːtmən/) is a Sanskrit word that means inner self or soul. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Ātman is the first principle, the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation, a human being must acquire self-knowledge (atma jnana), which is to realize that one's true self (Ātman) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman.

The six orthodox schools of Hinduism believe that there is Ātman (Soul, Self) in every being, a major point of difference with Buddhism, which does not believe that there is either soul or self.

Etymology

"Ātman" (Atma, आत्मा, आत्मन्) is a Sanskrit word which means "essence, breath, soul." It is related to PIE *etmen (a root meaning "breath"; cognates: Ancient Greek ἀτμός atmòs "vapor" (whence English atmosphere), Dutch adem, Old High German atum "breath," Modern German atmen "to breathe" and Atem "respiration, breath", Old English eþian). Ātman is synonymous with Soul, Self.