Clan

A clan (plural: clans; from Scottish Gaelic clann "descendant") or in German Klan (plural: Klane) was originally a larger family group in Scotland that inhabited a delimited area and traced its origins back to a common ancestor (see Scottish clan). Derived from this, ethnology understands a clan in ethnic groups and indigenous peoples as a family group that refers to a common origin, but can only inaccurately or contradictorily derive this mostly legendary ancestry (compare "fictitious genealogy"). In addition, there are totemic clans, which establish their togetherness through a common and cultic relationship to a totem (animal, plant or natural phenomenon) as their group insignia. The members of a (large) clan do not all live together, but usually form cooperative village communities with members of other clans.

Unlike clans, lineages (single-lineage groups) can trace their descent from a progenitor precisely and without gaps, usually back 10 or more generations. A clan often consists of the union of several or many individual lineages, for example among the Khasi in northeastern India (1.5 million members in their own state of Meghalaya), who are organized according to their maternal lineages, or the Iroquois Indians in North America. Their rather large clans were and are each led by a clan mother who had a jointly elected clan "chief" at her side; all clan mothers and chiefs together form the tribal council.

In clans, exogamous marriage rules usually apply: Spouses are to be sought outside one's own clan (compare the incest taboo). In some Indian tribes, several interrelated clans joined together to form a phratry (ancient Greek for "brotherhood"), a cooperative association that in turn cooperated with other phratries during cult festivals or warfare.

Transferred meanings

Clan (e-sport): In computer games and electronic sports, organized teams and clubs are called clans.

Clan crime: In Germany, the attribution as clan is increasingly generalised by media and authorities in relation to so-called "Arab extended families" who have become conspicuous in the field of organised crime (see the clans Abou-Chaker, Miri, Remmo or Al-Zein).

Examples of clan societies

The Scottish clans were organized through male hereditary lines (patrilineal) and experienced their heyday between 1300 and 1750, still today many of the clan names are common (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 matrilineal clans. As with the matrilineal Iroquois, several related clans each formed a federation (technically called a phratry, see more examples there). Among the Tsimshian, a matrilineal tribal group of several First Nations in the historical Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States, the position of each member was determined by membership in one of four clans (pteex), each of which was assigned to a totem animal and named, accordingly, the Eagle, Orca, Raven, and Wolf clans; marriages were permitted only between these clans (exogamy requirement), and prohibited within the same clan (endogamy prohibition).

The Somali clan system in Somalia (Horn of Africa) continues to play a significant role in culture and politics today. Each Somali belongs to his own tribe or clan (Somali reer) through his paternal lineage, which in turn is part of a larger clan belonging to an even broader clan. All clans are ultimately part of the five or six major clan families (qaabiil), each of which derives patrilineally from a common progenitor.

In Namibia, sub-groups of ethnic groups (such as the Nama) recognised as "traditional administration" are referred to as clans, for example the Afrikaners.

In the Kurdistan region, the approximate settlement area of the Kurds in the Middle East, the many tribes are composed of individual large clans, each formed from several patrilineal lineages (see Kurdish clans: Eşiret).

In the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the clan system of the Batak people 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 on 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.

There were also clans in China that are still important today, for example the Xie clan of the Chen command.

See also

• Chiefdom (political leadership)