MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Lebanon
Index
Lebanon's somewhat peculiar political system has reinforced
sectarian identification and consciousness. The tendency of the
individual to identify with his sect as the major political unit
has characterized the sectarian composition of political parties
(see Sectarian Groups
, ch. 4). That most militias in the 1980s
were organized along purely sectarian lines, or that the army's
brigades were also divided among the sects, indicates the primacy
of sectarian consciousness
(see The Army
, ch. 5).
In the mid-1980s there were other associational affiliations in
Lebanon. Shia families in the Biqa were organized into clans
(ashair) that have existed for centuries. The politics of
the region entailed typical clan feuds, alliances, and themes of
revenge, which local politicians exploited. The rise in sectarian
consciousness among Lebanese generally did not necessarily conflict
with clan solidarity. Another pervasive primordial tie that
characterized the Lebanese was their fealty to a group of
traditional leaders (zuama; sing.,
zaim--see Glossary).
The system of fealty involves utmost allegiance and
loyalty (including support in election times) by a certain family
to a certain zaim, in return for services and access to
powerbrokers (see
Zuama Clientelism, ch. 4). The
relationship between the two parties is maintained by a system of
obligations and political commitment. This system, a vestige of
feudal Lebanon, fostered a bond of fidelity between peasants and
the feudal lord. Zaim clientelism provides the individual
zaim with undisputed leadership of a local community, which
sometimes encompasses a whole sect (such as the zuama of Al
Assad in southern Lebanon in the first half of the twentieth
century). In the 1980s the zuama were in many cases the
direct descendants of the great feudal families of the past.
A new development in Lebanon after 1975 was the rise of an
elite that included a new stratum of emerging street leaders who
enjoyed power by virtue of sheer military force, individual
charisma, or even direct descent from zuama families. All
three characteristics applied to the late Bashir Jumayyil (also
seen as Gemayel)
(see The Ascendancy of Bashir Jumayyil
, ch. 5).
This stratum typically included young and dynamic sons of
zuama, street thugs, and a rising elite of Muslim religious
clerics.
Data as of December 1987
|
|