ABSTRACT
Culture and society in the Algeria of the 1980s are undergoing fundamental change as exhibited in the multitude of hidden and open conflicts, contradictions, and tensions that beset everyday existence. Algerian traditional life both in the countryside and the city and at the personal, familial, and local levels has been affected profoundly by 132 years of colonial rule, including nearly 8 years of war and revolutionary struggle, and the broad mobilization policies of the post independent leadership. These conditions have endangered Algeria's cultural continuity and created a mobile, often rootless society that only Islamic belief and, secondarily, populist ideology have prevented from disintegrating into open conflict or social chaos.
