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Saudi Arabia
Index
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
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