Duma Doyal Ci Maam Maryaama: Ins and Outs of Gendered Embodiment in a Senegalese Daara

Abstract

This ethnography explores the gendered and multidirectional relationships between interiors and bodies in Daara Yacine, a Sufi daara (Quranic school) in Senegal. Beliefs and daily practices in the daara center around Maryaama (the Quranic Mary), who serves as proof that women are superior to men and whose example is performatively embodied by all Daara Yacine students. This thesis discusses the nuances and complexities of gendered interior/exterior dichotomies through its analyses of the community’s gendered division of labor, the ongoing story of Maryaama, the sometimes-contradictory relationships between gendered interiors and sexed exteriors, and the embodied and affective practices of song and dance. In Daara Yacine, boundaries between interior, body, and social world are drawn and complicated, their interstices becoming sites of both incongruity and harmony.