clan
A clan (plural: Clans; from Scottish Gaelic clann " descendant ") or Germanized Klan (plural: Klane) was originally a larger family group in Scotland that lived in a demarcated area and traced their origins back to a common ancestor (see Scottish clan ) . Derived from this, ethnology (ethnology) understands a clan in ethnic groups and indigenous peoples to be a family association that refers to a common origin, but can only derive this mostly fabulous ancestry inexactly or contradictingly (compare " fictitious genealogy "). In addition, there are totemic clans who establish their togetherness through a common and cultic relationship to a totem (animal, plant or natural phenomenon) as their group badge. The members of a (large) clan do not all live together, but mostly form cooperative village communities with members of other clans .
In contrast to clans, lineages ( single lineage groups) can name their ancestry from an ancestral mother or ancestor precisely and without gaps, usually 10 or more generations back. A clan often consists of the merger of several or many individual lineages, such as the by their mothers lines ordered Khasi in northeastern India (1.5 million members in their own state Meghalaya ) or the Iroquois -Indianern in North America. Their rather large clans were and are each headed by a clan mother who had a jointly elected clan " chief " at her side; all clan mothers and chiefs together form the tribal council .
Exogamous marriage rules usually apply in clans : the spouse should be sought outside of one's own clan (compare the incest taboo ). In some Indian tribes, several related clans formed a phratry (ancient Greek " brotherhood "), a cooperative association that worked with other phratries at cult festivals or warfare .
Figurative meanings
Clan (e-sports) : In computer games and electronic sports , organized teams and clubs are referred to as clans .
Clan crime : In Germany, the attribution as a clan is increasingly generalized by the media and authorities in relation to so-called "large Arab families", which have become conspicuous in the area of organized crime (see the clans Abou-Chaker , Miri , Remmo or Al- Zein ).
Examples of clan societies
The Scottish clans were organized over male lineages ( patrilinear ) and flourished between 1300 and 1750, many of the clan names are still common today (see list of Scottish clans and clan names of Irish families ).
Many North American Indian tribes are or were divided into subunits called clans . For example, the Hopi were divided into maternal ( matrilineal ) clans. As in the case of the Iroquois according to matriculation , several related clans each formed an association (technical language phratry , see further examples there). In the case of the Tsimshian , a matrilineal tribal group of several First Nations in the historical Pacific Northwest of Canada and the USA, the position of each member was determined based on membership of one of four clans (pteex) , each assigned to a totem animal and accordingly eagle, orca , Raven and wolf clan were called; Marriage was only allowed between these clans ( exogamy required), and forbidden within the same clan ( endogamy prohibited).
The Somali clan system in Somalia (on the Horn of Africa ) also plays an important role in culture and politics today. Every Somali belongs to their own tribe or clan through their paternal lineage ( Somali reer ), which in turn is part of a larger clan that belongs to an even broader clan. All clans are ultimately part of the five or six large clan families (qaabiil) , each of which is patrilinear from a common progenitor .
In the Kurdistan region , the approximate settlement area of the Kurds in the Middle East, the many tribes are made up of individual large clans, each formed from several patrilinear lineages (see Kurdish clans: Eşiret ).
In the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra , the clan system of the Batak ethnic group is called Marga ; the clan associations are cult and sacrificial communities.
In medieval Japanese society , ( samurai ) clans and noble families are referred to as clans . Some of them exercised a monopoly position over important offices and government of provinces for centuries , for example the Sugawara clan from the 8th century until today, the Ōmura clan from the 10th century.
In Namibia , subgroups of ethnic groups recognized as traditional administration , including the Nama , z. B. the Africans , referred to as clan .
exploration
Older American research literature referred to clan exclusively as the matrilineal affiliation via the maternal line, while the patrilinear affiliation via the father line was referred to as gens . After the introduction of the unifying term sib (from the German " clan ": in German inaccurate and out of date) by the American anthropologist Robert H. Lowie (1883–1957), the term clan became generally accepted in the English-language literature for those family associations which refer to a common ancestor , but can only name their descent from this in a contradictory or imprecise manner.
A narrower definition of clan goes back to the American anthropologist George P. Murdock (1897–1985): He understood the term clan to be a family group that lived together on one territory, including the married spouses, excluding those who married away. Depending on the conjugal residence usually characterized arise father side patrician clans or nut side Matri- clans or avunkulokale clans (see also avunculate : social paternity of the maternal uncle, the uncle ).
Clans in the Ethnosociology with lineages , phratry (clan associations) and Moiety-lineages superior as " single-line descent sgruppen" summarized (unilineal descent groups) . They are not congruent with kinship groups ( Kindreds ), these consist of the personal social network of a single person to relatives of both parents .
See also
- Chiefdom (political leadership)
Web links
- Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Difference Between Lineage and Klan. (PDF: 1.8 MB; 58 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 2/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 72/73 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 (documents for her lecture in the summer semester 2011).
- Dieter Steiner : The matrilineal clan. In: Social in the narrower sense. Own website, Zurich, 1998 (comprehensive paper by a professor of human ecology ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Duden online : Klan. Accessed January 15, 2020; Quote: " Origin: English clan <Gaelic clann = descendant <Latin planta, plant [...] plural: the clans".
-
↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Difference between Lineage and Klan. (PDF: 1.8 MB; 58 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 2/5). University of Vienna, 2011, p. 72 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; accessed on January 15, 2020 .
Quote: “So noted z. B. BARGATZKY with regard to the clan: "Lines that can no longer prove the common descent from an ancestor, but are nevertheless convinced that they have such a common ancestor, are generally referred to as a clan." (BARGATZKY 1985: p. 58) (ad. Other definitions of Klan cf. KEESING 1975: p.148, glossary; BARNARD / SPENCER 1997: p.598; VIVELO 1981: p.227f) It should be noted that there were earlier further terminological terms with regard to the various forms of this form of fictitious descent Differentiations were common. So was z. B. differentiated between clan, clan, gens, deme, etc. MURDOCK in particular made such a differentiation. In today's ethnological literature, however, such distinctions are seldom found. (cf. VIVELO 1981: p.227) ".
-
↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Term: totemistic clan. (PDF: 1.8 MB; 58 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (Part 2/5). University of Vienna, 2011, p. 73 , archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; accessed on January 15, 2020 .
Quote: “Individual clans are derived [...] also from certain animals (cf. Kirghiz about the hind ) etc. back. In this context, the literature often speaks of totemic clans. […] Overall, there are many debates around the term totemism . I.a. in totemic clans there is often a marriage rule that stipulates that marriage must take place outside of one's own clan. (For details see SEYMOUR-SMITH 1986: p.278 and BARNARD [/] SPENCER 1997: p.550f, keyword totemism) As the various definitions of clan and lineage have already made clear, the main difference between clan and lineage is the that in the case of the lineage, “… the individual members of a lineage can prove their descent from an ancestor, while those of a clan cannot. The clan members have an idea of common ancestry, but in reality they are not able to trace and prove this in detail. "(VIVELO 1981: p.227f)".
- ^ Walter Hirschberg (Ed.): New dictionary of ethnology. Reimer, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-496-00875-X , p. 252.
- ↑ Michael Behrendt , Manuel Bewarder , Wolfgang Büscher: Arab large families: zero tolerance strategy is to smash criminal clans. In: Welt.de . March 4, 2018, accessed January 15, 2020.
- ^ Early Evidence of Human Habitation. Government Republic of Namibia. Retrieved May 6, 2020.