LONDON (University of Exeter) -- The study of Arab tribes should not be abandoned because Middle East and North African citizens continue to insist on the relevance of the term in their daily lives, says a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Political Science.
The use of “tribe” has been discredited and is now rarely used by researchers, who are concerned it is too vague, evocative of primitive and backwards connotations, and has been inappropriately applied.
The study says there should be more specific use of the term, treating it as a dynamic--not static--description, and researchers should ensure it is used based on on-the-ground reality and not theoretical biases.
Dr. Eleanor Gao, from the University of Exeter, who conducted the research, said, “The term ‘tribe’ has at times been indiscriminately applied, even when societies were not organized as such to serve Western intellectual and organizational interests. Nonetheless, it is a term that still holds resonance for many citizens of the Arab world and one that they independently use to describe their own societies.
“By reducing the tribe to its most essential characteristics, distinguishing the term from various, often negative attributes it has been assigned, and not presupposing the absence or salience of tribes, we can resurrect a badly maligned but still very useful concept.”
The Arab world includes a wide array of diverse ethnicities. Some groups such as the Kurds, Berbers, Persians, Turkmen, and Circassians organize themselves tribally. For some, this is about kinship, and for others it is based around a common territory, language and culture or defense capacity. The study says this explains why the term has lost clarity and has become opaque.
For some groups, the concept of a tribe was invented by Western colonial powers to impose boundaries on official documents and maps.
Dr. Gao said, “It is no wonder some social scientists have demanded that we move away from the study of tribes altogether. In future, rather than a thick, complex conception of a tribe that is bound to a number of characteristics applicable only in specific contexts, we should adopt a thin, parsimonious conception of a tribe focused on the essential characteristics that differentiate a tribe from other social units.
“We must recognize tribes are not static but dynamic and modern entities. They shift and change according to social circumstances and regime agendas.”
The study outlines how some tribes have become more politically powerful because of the actions of the Jordanian and Kuwaiti monarchies, which have purposely selected electoral rules that encourage voting for one’s own tribe over political parties or blocs.