Tribe

From Hobson's Choice

A division of mankind based variously on kinship or symbiosis. Usually applied to pre-literate peoples.

Contents 1 Abuse of the Term 2 Clan 3 Tribe as Political Unit 4 Bands 5 Notes 6 External Links

Abuse of the Term

Typically, the use of carries racist judgments. For example, in countries that are supposedly "civilized," tribe is almost never used.^[1] Tribe is somewhat used, with obvious confusion, by journalists covering rural Southwest Asian conflicts.^[2] It is also used in the context of the Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, often in a reasonably sound manner.

The term "tribe" may well be the best word for the situation; it is a legitimate term from anthropology. But journalistic usage tends to incorporate colonial assumptions about the people and conflicts: viz., tribes are people who cannot be expected to navigate rational political structures, and require constant supervision, whereas ethnic groups are intended to reflect proto-national entities; it is common for bystanders to embrace the cause of this or that ethnicity's "liberation" from some other nation.^[3] It seems highly unlikely that anyone would enthusiastically support a "tribe's" right to national liberation, because of the utterly petty, non-ideological structure of tribal politics.

Clan

The word "clan" is used most frequently in the context of Somalia. It is used as a loose synonym for tribe. Journalists appear to understand that the members of the Somali clans lack the sorts of ethnic differentiation that would probably exist among tribes. Somali clans include lore of their ancestry leading back to a common, legendary (?) figure, Saamal.^[4] In more scholarly circles, clans are understood as existing across Central Asia^[5] On occasion, "clan" is used to avoid the patronizing sound of "tribe."

Tribe as Political Unit

In the USA, a federally-recognized tribe is a type of Native American group with an acknowledged cultural heritage. While it is arguably racist for official US documents to characterize all Native American political entities as "tribes," it has to be conceded that no word captures all of the political groupings of the Native Americans. There were several dozen entities that could reasonably have been called "nations," plus ethnic groups spread out over many politically detached communities, nomadic bands, and so on. The modern "tribe" is an entity with defined blood lineage (which excludes bands), some territorial claim, and entitlements to tribal revenues.

In Iran and India, tribes are groups that cannot be tied through history to settled cultures; hence, Iranians are classified as Farsi, Azeri, Kurd (or Lur), Gilaki, Mazandarani, Baluchi, Arab, or Turkoman. If they are none of these, then they are members of one of the 96 "independent" tribes.^[6] The Indian federal government recognizes scheduled tribes, which are groups of people who historically were isolated from the main Hindu or Muslim populations, and hence, outside of its caste system. In periods prior to independence for India, there was a tendency for tribes coming into contact with the major communities to find themselves thrust to the bottom, as a result of their lack of powerful connections.^[7]

In Pakistan, large sectors of the border with Afghanistan are "tribal areas" with facto autonomy from either the provincial or central governments. Collectively, they are known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The interesting about Pakistani tribes is that they are largely a geographical entity. They are ethnically, linguistically, and religiously related to the rest of the Pakistanis, but have retained a distinctive mountain culture that is entirely remote from that of the Indus Valley.^[8] About 3.2 million people live in the FATA, and had historically enjoyed a good relationship with the central government until recently.^[9]

Bands

The term "band" may imply a link based on kinship, but still smaller and more socially primitive than even a clan. Sometimes "clan" and "band" are used interchangeably.^[10] In the USA, "band" means a sociopolitical division of a tribe, separated from the tribe by historical events or geographical, political, or similar causes.^[11] However, anthropologists regard bands as entities that comprise multiple family units, and may likely incorporate immigrants.^[12] The distinction is actually fairly complicated, since there are major divisions based on marriage customs. "Patrilocal bands" incorporate exogamous marriages (i.e., partners outside the band), with the bride residing with her husband's family. "Composite bands" involve a mixture of customs, including endogamy with uxorilocal residence (in which the husband lives with his bride's family). Bands of hunter-gatherers may not document descent, especially in cases such as the Shoshone, where the band identity was in conflict and competition with clan identity. Composite bands are likely to be post-traumatic, such as among indigenous peoples suffering contact with European ecological redemption.^[13]

Notes

1. ↑ A exception is in the Republic of South Africa, after the creation of "tribal homelands." The apartheid regime there sought to legitimize its system of discrimination by establishing "tribal homelands." It gamely acknowledged itself as a "white tribe" whose homeland happened to comprise all the best land and all the economic activity. See "The Defiant White Tribe" Time, (Nov. 21, 1977)
2. ↑ For example, see "Khalis Tribal Leaders Sign Peace Agreement."
3. ↑ For example, many Westerners have enthusiastically embraced the cause of Kurdish "liberation" as a scheme to neutralize Arab states with a large Kurdish minority.
4. ↑ Library of Congress Somali Country Study.
5. ↑ For example, B. Raman "Anti-Uzbek anger in South Waziristan", South Asian Analysis Group (Aug 2007)
6. ↑ A. William Samii, "The Nation and Its Minorities: Ethnicity, Unity State Policy in Iran" , Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2001)
7. ↑ 10th Five Year Plan (2002-2007), Planning Commission, Volume II, 4.2 "Scheduled Tribes" . There are about 90 million members of Tribal Groups, of which perhaps 1.3 million are members of Primitive Tribal Groups (PTG). Most "tribals" live in the states east of Bangladesh, which have dramatically lower population densities than elsewhere in India.
8. ↑ Library of Congress, Country Study for Pakistan, "Pakhtuns"
9. ↑ Hassan Abbas, "Profiles of Pakistan's Seven Tribal Agencies", Jamestown Foundation (2006).
10. ↑ For example, in Australia, "Aboriginal Tribes of the Lower North Shore" , North Sydney Council
11. ↑ Annotated Code of Maryland, 8.6 Recognition of Maryland Indian Status , p.2
12. ↑ Yehudi A. Cohen Man in Adaptation, Aldine Transaction (1974), p.109
13. ↑ Ibid., p.144ff

External Links

A. William Samii "The Nation and Its Minorities: Ethnicity, Unity and State Policy in Iran" , Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (October 2001)