Tribes

A tribal name is a name of an ethnic tribe —usually of ancient origin, which represented its self-identity.

Studies of Native American tribal names show that most had an original meaning comparable to "human," "people" "us"—the "tribal" name for itself was often the localized ethnic self-perception of the general word for "human being."

In Israel, tribal names are used by the central election committee instead of town names, in cases where tribes do not live in recognized towns, or are nomadic.

The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. Its definition is contested, in part due to conflicting theoretical understandings of social and kinship structures, and also reflecting the problematic application of this concept to extremely diverse human societies. The concept is often contrasted by anthropologists with other social and kinship groups, being hierarchically larger than a lineage or clan, but smaller than a chiefdom, ethnicity, nation or state. These terms are similarly disputed. In some cases tribes have legal recognition and some degree of political autonomy from national or federal government, but this legalistic usage of the term may conflict with anthropological definitions.

Tribes of Madhya Pradesh, India

Men of the Shkreli tribe at the feast of Saint Nicholas at Bzheta in Shkreli territory, Albania, 1908

In the United States, Native American tribes are legally considered to have "domestic dependent nation" status within the territorial United States, with a government-to-government relationship with the federal government.

Classification

Controversy and usage deprecation

The term "tribe" was in common use in the field of anthropology until the late 1950s and 1960s. The continued use of the term has attracted controversy among anthropologists and other academics active in the social sciences with scholars of anthropological and ethnohistorical research challenging the utility of the concept. In 1970, anthropologist J. Clyde Mitchell wrote:

The tribe, a long respected category of analysis in anthropology, has recently been the object of some scrutiny by anthropologists ... Doubts about the utility of the tribe as an analytical category have almost certainly arisen out of the rapid involvement of peoples, even in the remotest parts of the globe, in political, economic and sometimes direct social relationship with industrial nations. The doubts, however, are based ultimately on the definition and meaning which different scholars give to the term 'tribe', its adjective 'tribal', and its abstract form 'tribalism'.

Despite the membership boundaries for a tribe being conceptually simple, in reality they are often vague and subject to change over time. In his 1975 study, The Notion of the Tribe, Fried provided numerous examples of tribes that encompassed members who spoke different languages and practiced different rituals, or who shared languages and rituals with members of other tribes. Similarly, he provided examples of tribes in which people followed different political leaders, or followed the same leaders as members of other tribes. He concluded that tribes in general are characterized by fluid boundaries, heterogeneity and dynamism, and are not parochial.

Part of the difficulty with the term is that it seeks to construct and apply a common conceptual framework across diverse cultures and peoples. Different anthropologists studying different peoples therefore draw conflicting conclusions about the nature, structure and practices of tribes. Writing on the Kurdish peoples, anthropologist Martin van Bruinessen argued, "the terms of standard anthropological usage, 'tribe', 'clan' and 'lineage' appear to be a straitjacket that ill fits the social reality of Kurdistan".

There are further negative connotations of the term "tribe" that have reduced its use. Writing in 2013, scholar Matthew Ortoleva noted that "like the word Indian, [t]ribe is a word that has connotations of colonialism."Survival International says "It is important to make the distinction between tribal and indigenous because tribal peoples have a special status acknowledged in international law as well as problems in addition to those faced by the wider category of indigenous peoples."

Tribes of Yemen

The Tribes of Yemen are the tribes residing within the borders of the Republic of Yemen. There are no official statistics, but some studies indicate that tribes constitute about 85% of the population of 25,408,288 as of February 2013. According to some statistics, there are approximately 200 tribes in Yemen, and some counted more than 400 tribes.  Yemen stands out as the most tribal nation in the Arab world due to the significant influence wielded by tribal leaders and their deep integration into the various facets of the state.

Yemeni Tribesmen

Languages

Arabic (Yemeni)

Religion

Shafi'i Islam, Zaydism

Many tribes in Yemen have long histories, with some tracing their roots back to the era of the Kingdom of Sheba. Throughout history, these tribes have often formed alliances, either to establish or dismantle states. Despite their diverse origins, they often share common ancestry. In Yemen the lineage of the tribe is not as important as alliances.  Tribes are far from being homogeneous societal structures in any way. Several clans may share a common history and "lineage," but the tribe in Yemen is not a cohesive political entity. Clans belonging to a common "lineage" may change their affiliations and loyalties as dictated by needs and circumstances. They and the allied tribe find a common “lineage.

Over long periods of time, Yemen remained a unified nation despite the lack of a central government that imposed its authority over the entire territory of Yemen, with the exception of short periods of Yemen's history. The nation was made up of a number of tribes, and the tribal division in Yemen stabilized with the advent of Islam into four federations. The tribes are: Himyar, Madhhaj, Kinda, and Hamdan. The Madhhaj tribe group consists of three tribes: Ans, Murad, and Al-Hadda, and they live in the eastern regions of Yemen. As for the Himyar tribes, they inhabited the southern mountainous regions and the central plateaus, while Hamadan consists of Hashid and Bakil.  The political and economic conditions in Yemen during the Middle Ages and the early modern era led to the redrawing of the tribal map of Yemen. The Madhaj tribes joined the Bakil tribal confederation, and some Himyar tribes joined the Hashid tribal confederation.

Main sources

The 1994 Yemen War: Causes and Consequences prepared by Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi, Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.

Palace and Diwan, The Political Role of the Tribe in Yemen a group of researchers headed by Dr. Adel Mujahid Al-Shargbi, Sanaa, 2009 PDF

Sinan Abu Lahoum, Yemen: Facts and Documents I Lived Part Two, Al-Afif Cultural Foundation, Sana’a, second edition, 2006

Yemen.. Revolution and War until 1970 AD Edgar Aublance, Madbouly Library – Cairo – 1990AD.

Zaid bin Ali Al-Wazir, An Attempt to Understand the Yemeni Problem, Al-Resala Foundation, D.B., 1971

Abdul Wali Al-Shammiri, One Thousand Hours of War, Al-Yusr Library, Sana’a, second edition, 1995

Muhammad Anam Ghalib, Yemen, Land and People: The Economics of Yemen Beirut, second edition, 1966

Yafa'a

See also: Yafa'a

Yafi' is a tribe belonging to Himyar bin Saba',  and their country was known in the texts of Al-Musnad in the name "Dahs" or "Dahsam" and then it was named after them later during the era of the Upper Yafa Sultanate,

 The Yafa tribe in the Yafa region is divided into two main sections: Banu Qasid and Banu Malik, and they established several sultanates throughout history in Yemen and abroad, such as The Tahirid State  The Emirate of Al-Kasad and The Qu'aiti Sultanate  and The Emirate of Al Buraik and others.

As for outside the Yafa’ area, they are usually divided into three major clans, namely Al-Mousta, Al-Dhabi, and Banu Qasid, and they are all called Ayal Malik or Banu Malik, in reference to Yafa’ Na’ta's grandfather, who was nicknamed Malik. They are spread in almost all governorates of Yemen, especially in Hadramaut. 

 They were also famous for being among the first tribes to pay attention to the Najdi Salafi call in Yemen during the era of Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab.

One of the Awaliq sheikhs in an old photo

Yafa' played a role alongside other tribes in the October 14 Revolution against the British colonizer, but unlike the northern regions of the country, the revolution and the evacuation of the colonizer did not increase the influence of the tribes, but rather increased their weakness and disintegration with minor differences. From one southern governorate to another, this is due to the policies of the Yemeni Socialist Party, which seized power after the expulsion of the English colonialists from Aden. The Socialist Party has placed this among its priorities,

However, tribal (or more precisely regional) affiliations emerged to the fore again during the 1986 War, among supporters Abdul Fattah Ismail and Ali Nasser Muhammad.

al-Aulaqi

The Aulaqi is one of the largest and most influential tribal blocs in the south of the country,  They are a tribal confederation from Shabwah Governorate in the eastern desert of Yemen. Most of the families of the confederation trace their origins to the Himyar and Kinda and Mazhaj and appeared under this name in the late eighteenth century. They established several sultans in The Modern History of Yemen such as the Upper Aulaqi Sultanate and the Lower Aulaqi Sultanate and others such as the Al-Daghar Sultanate and their sheikhdom in the Al Farid, It is a cohesive tribe compared to other tribes residing in the south of the country, and they are located in Shabwa.

supporting the army to fight Al-Qaeda, and sometimes they fight battles as an alternative to it.

The army's need to support tribal militias was and still is not only due to its weakness, but also to the army's desire to contain the tribes during the wars and battles it fights, and to ensure that they do not side with the other party. The Yemeni tribes have always been ready to enter wars with anyone against them. Whatever, throughout Yemeni history the tribal sheikhs viewed war as a means of production, some of the tribes that were monarchies during the 1960s, cooperated in the late 1970s in what was known as the “Front War" with the National Democratic Front, which constitutes an extension of the forces that were fighting it in sixties The regime then imposed forced conscription on many of the youth of the central regions, which were witnessing a widespread rebellion., to ensure that they or those not recruited from their families do not participate in the rebellion against the army.

In exchange for the militias’ support for the regime in its wars during the last decades of the twentieth century, the regime granted tribal sheikhs money, lands, cars, and real estate, and granted some tribal sheikhs military ranks and job ranks in the state's administrative apparatus.

During those wars, the tribes obtained a large amount of weapons, and the participation of tribal militias in the 1994 Civil War gained importance. Especially in this area, it obtained large quantities of weapons from the military units loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh at the time, and seized other quantities of weapons from the military units loyal to his deputy Ali Salem Al-Baid after their defeat, to the point that their stock of light weapons exceeds the government's stockpile. The government's stockpile of light weapons was estimated at 1,500,000 weapons, while the tribes' possessions were estimated at more than 5 million weapons.   

Most of these weapons are in the hands of the Hashid and Bakil tribes and their sheikhs. The boom in weapons among the tribes was and still is one of the most important factors for the weakness of the army, eliminating the presence of the state and marginalizing its role. The availability of weapons among the tribes has hindered the government from fulfilling the functions of the state, such as extracting natural resources, punishing outlaws, and regulating the use of water.  

 Tribal leaders attribute their influence in less favored areas in the areas of Sanaa such as Radaa or Ma'rib to the absence of infrastructure, the deliberate marginalization of the government, and the state's inability to establish security and stability there.

History

The first attempt of such social communities dates back to at least 2003, when tribe.net was launched.

      Different  spellings within tribes

Wordt spellings within tribess, and the way we spell them are in a continuous change, as we find new ways to communicate. Despite the fact that traditional dictionaries do not take into account the changes, online ones have adopted many of them.  An interesting fact outlined in the research above is that communities tend to use their own distinctive spelling for words. According to Professor Vincent Jansen from Royal Holloway online communities spell words in different ways, just as people have different regional accents.   For example, Justin Bieber fans tend to end words in "ee" as in "pleasee", while school teachers tend to use long words. Moreover, the largest group found in the study was composed of African Americans who were using the words "nigga", "poppin", and "chillin". Members of this community also tend to shorten the ends of the words, replacing "ing" with "in" and "er" with "a"

Conclusion

As Seth Godin states, "The Internet eliminated geography". 

People join tribes or clans because they find and share the same ideas and interests with other people. 

 The main disadvantage of old tribes is that they could not influence group behaviour. On the other hand, new tribes are self-sustaining and can survive without a leader, they are not necessarily dialogue based and they are long lasting. As it has been demonstrated within this article, tribes have influenced the way languages, organisations and cultures work.  They have redefined old concepts with the help of social media and have changed the way people will interact in the future.