Name of Object:

Seated Berber woman (Nailiya)

Location:

Madrid, Spain

Holding Institution:

National Museum of Anthropology

 About National Museum of Anthropology, Madrid

Holding Institution (original language):

Museo Nacional de Antropología

Date of Object:

1856-1859

Inventory Number:

MNAFD1001

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Albumen print, cardboard

Dimensions:

17 x 12 cm

Description:

The image depicts a Nailiya, a woman of the Berber tribe of the Ouled Naïl, in the south of Algeria. She is sitting among rich cushions, wearing a colourful silk dress and the jewels used to perform their traditional dance.
The Nailiyat were independent women, free to marry men of their choosing. They moved to the cities in the North to earn money as dancers, in order to maintain their families in their community of origin. All this was not fully understood by Europeans. With the emergence of sex tourism these women were forced to introduce sexual content in their originally hieratic performance, and finally they were even considered as prostitutes by the French administration, in turn leading to being repudiated in their villages.
Early photography contributed to forge this image of the Nailiyat in the European imagination.

Type of Object

Photograph

Citation of this web page:

"Seated Berber woman (Nailiya)" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;es;7;en

Copyedited by: Anne Dowell

MWNF Working Number: SP 007