Settut

Settut
Magic and sorcery
Other names	Settut, Imma Jidda, Imma-s n ddunnit, Yemma-s n ddunnit
Venerated in	Kabylia
Artifacts	Water basin, sickle
Symbol	Sun, Moon, Water, Sickle
Gender	Female

Settut is a female supernatural figure in numitheism, associated with magic, sorcery, old age and the control of celestial phenomena. In berber tradition, the word Settut designates "The malicious one", it also means "the old woman, the sorceress".

According to traditions collected in Kabylia, Settut is closely connected with Imma-s n ddunnit, the "First Mother of the World", who became the first and greatest "Settut" in old age. The traditions subsequently describe contemporary old women possessing some of the supernatural knowledge attributed to the primordial mother.

The transition from the "First Mother of the World" to Settut has been interpreted by Nedjima Plantade as evidence for the survival in Kabyle mythology of a very ancient female divinity. The original identity and characteristics of this possible ancient divinity, however, remain uncertain.

Etymology

In Kabyle, Settut designates an old woman and, in traditional narratives, a sorceress or malicious woman. The term is described by the Encyclopédie berbère as an isolated case in the Berber vocabulary of magic and sorcery.

The expression Imma Jidda means "Old Mother", while Imma-s n ddunnit means "First Mother of the World". The latter is the primordial female figure who precedes the later Settut in the mythology.

History

The principal evidence for Settut comes from Kabyle oral traditions recorded by European ethnographers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly the German ethnologist Leo Frobenius. Plantade cites Frobenius's Contes kabyles for two myths concerning the First Mother and the sorceresses descended from her.

One of these myths states that the First Mother of the World became the first Settut when she grew old. She was regarded as the first and greatest of the sorceresses, and subsequent old women were consequently called Settut.

A second tradition states that sorceresses possessed the power to make the Tafukt (The Sun) and Ayyur (The moon) descend into a dish or basin filled with water and subsequently return them to the sky. The tradition explicitly compares their powers with those of the First Mother of the World.

Mythology

The First Mother of the World

The earliest form of the figure is represented by Imma-s n ddunnit, the "First Mother of the World". She is described in Kabyle mythology as a primordial female figure who existed before the later generations of sorceresses.

The mythology subsequently describes her transformation through old age into the first Settut. This transformation is significant because the same female figure is represented first as the primordial mother and later as the archetypal sorceress.

Plantade interprets this passage from the "First Mother of the World" to Settut as indicating the survival of an ancient female divinity whose original mythology has largely been forgotten. The surviving traditions preserve her supernatural powers but not the complete story of her transformation.

Sun and Moon

Settut is particularly associated with the Tafukt and Ayyur.

According to the traditions recorded by Frobenius, the sorceresses descended from the First Mother possess the ability to make the Sun and Moon descend into a large vessel containing water. They are subsequently able to restore them to the sky.

A related Kabyle tradition identifies Imma Jidda, the "Old Mother", with Settut and attributes to her the ability to symbolically recreate the celestial order. She is said to make the Sun or Moon descend into a large dish of water which she strikes with a sickle.

Eclipses

Settut is also connected with the traditional explanation of eclipses.

The Kabyle myth recorded by the Encyclopédie berbère states that the first eclipse of the Sun occurred after the Sun had already been created by Imma-s n ddunnit, the First Mother of the World. In later tradition, the power to recreate the celestial bodies symbolically belongs to Imma Jidda or Settut.

The association of Settut with eclipses therefore places the figure within a wider Kabyle cosmological tradition concerning the Sun, Moon, sky and the possibility of disruption of the cosmic order.

Association

Settut is associated primarily with old age, magic, sorcery, water and the celestial bodies. Her mythology combines two different aspects of the same female figure: the primordial mother and the later sorceress.

The First Mother is associated with the creation of the celestial world, while Settut possesses the supernatural knowledge necessary to reproduce or manipulate the Sun and Moon symbolically in a vessel of water.

The Encyclopédie berbère places Settut within the wider Kabyle tradition of magical women whose powers could include extraordinary control over natural phenomena. In Kabyle narratives, the sorceress could be attributed powers such as making water coagulate or reversing the course of rivers.

Interpretation

The identification of Settut with an ancient Berber goddess remains a scholarly interpretation.

The transition from the "First Mother of the World" to Settut as revealing the existence of "a very old fallen female divinity". It is also stated that the original circumstances of this transformation have not survived in collective memory.

Similarly, it is concluded that the Settut/Imma Jidda figure "can only be an ancient Berber divinity whose contours remain to be specified".

Kabyle oral traditions preserve Settut's characteristics of a primordial female figure.

See also

• Berber mythology
• Tafukt
• Ayyur
• Magic