|
Saudi Arabia
Structure of Tribal Groupings
Almost all nomadic people are organized in tribal associations,
the exceptions being the saluba, the tinkers and traders
of the desert, and black beduin, descendants of former slaves.
Not all tribal people, however, are beduin because urban and agricultural
peoples may maintain tribal identities.
Structurally, tribal groups are defined by common patrilineal
descent that unites individuals in increasingly larger segments.
The lineage is the unit that shares joint responsibility for avenging
the wrongs its members may suffer and, conversely, paying compensation
to anyone whom its members have aggrieved. Although tribes may
differ in their status, all lineages of a given tribe are considered
equal. Water wells, aside from the newer deep wells drilled by
the government, are held in common by lineages. Among nomads,
lineage membership is the basis of summer camps; all animals,
although owned by individual households, bear the lineage's brand.
The lineage is the nexus between the individual and the tribe.
To be ostracized by one's lineage leaves the individual little
choice but to sever all tribal links; it is to lose the central
element in one's social identity.
Above the level of lineage, there are three to five larger segments
that together make up the tribe. Donald Cole, an anthropologist
who studied the Al (see Glossary) Murrah, a tribe of camel-herding
nomads in eastern and southern Arabia, notes that four to six
patrilineally related lineages are grouped together in a clan
(seven clans comprise the Al Murrah tribe). However the subdivisions
of a tribe are defined, they are formed by adding larger and larger
groups of patrilineally related kin. The system permits lineages
to locate themselves relative to all other groups on a "family
tree."
In practice, effective lineage and tribal membership reflect
ecological and economic constraints. Among nomads, those who summer
together are considered to be a lineage's effective membership.
On the individual level, adoption is, and long has been, a regular
occurrence. A man from an impoverished lineage will sometimes
join his wife's group. His children will be considered members
of their mother's lineage, although this contravenes the rules
of patrilineal descent.
The process of adjusting one's view of genealogical relationships
to conform to the existing situation applies upward to larger
and larger sections of a tribe. Marriages and divorces increase
the number of possible kin to whom an individual can trace a link
and, concomitantly, of the ways in which one can view potential
alliances and genealogical relationships. The vicissitudes of
time, the history of tribal migrations, the tendency of groups
to segment into smaller units, the adoption of client tribes by
those stronger, a smaller tribe's use of the name of one more
illustrious--all tend to make tenuous the tie between actual descent
and the publicly accepted view of genealogy. At every level of
tribal organization, genealogical "fudging" brings existing sociopolitical
relationships into conformity with the rules of patrilineal descent.
The genealogical map, therefore, is as much a description of extant
social relations as a statement of actual lines of descent.
Data as of December 1992
|
