Fellow Tribesmen

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Germans exhibited a widespread cultural passion for tales and representations of Native Americans. This book explores the evolution of German national identity and its relationship with the ideas and cultural practices around “Indianthusiasm.” Pervasive and adaptable, imagery of Native Americans was appropriated by Nazi propaganda and merged with exceptionalist notions of German tribalism, oxymoronically promoting the Nazis’ racial ideology. This book combines cultural and intellectual history to scrutinize the motifs of Native American imagery in German literature, media, and scholarship, and analyzes how these motifs facilitated the propaganda effort to nurture national pride, racial thought, militarism, and hatred against the Allied powers among the German populace.

With the exception of two short periods of direct British intervention during the Anglo-Afghan Wars of 1839-42 and 1878-80, the history of nineteenth-century Afghanistan has received little attention from western scholars. This study seeks to shift the focus of debate from the geostrategic concern with Afghanistan as the bone of contention between imperial Russian and British interests to a thorough investigation of the sociopolitical circumstances prevailing within the country. On the basis of unpublished British documents and works by Afghan historians, it lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the political mechanisms at work during the early Muhammadzai era by analysing them both from the viewpoint of the center and the pierphery.

Anthropologist Claude Lvi-Strauss was among the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. In this rigorous study, Maurice Godelier traces the evolution of his thought. Focusing primarily on Lvi-Strauss's analysis of kinship and myth, Godelier provides an assessment of his intellectual achievements and legacy. Meticulously researched, Lvi-Strauss is written in a clear and accessible style. The culmination of decades of engagement with Lvi-Strauss's work, this book will prove indispensible to students of his thought and structural anthropology more generally.

This pioneering study captures the traditional social, economic and political systems of the Arab sheikhdoms of the Gulf. It represents a unique and in-depth insight into the complex and varied cultural patterns of the Arabs, Persians and the people of the East African Coast in the 1950s, before the advent of oil wealth radically altered the style of life and expectations of the people living in these sheikdoms. In a compelling narrative Lienhardt discusses the tribal structure, relations between men and women, the economics of pearl fishing, the growth of towns and the complex relationship between the ruling sheikhs and their subjects. His findings offer a key to the understanding of the political system and the transition from the tribal to the class system. Specialists on the Gulf and Middle East, social historians and anthropologists will find a wealth of new evidence and analysis in this invaluable and accessible combination of history and anthropology.

Special Issue: An Exploration of the Reservation System in North America Introduction, Deward E. Walker, Jr. Indian Reservations and the American Social System, Elizabeth Colson The Reservation Community as an Interactional System, Fred Voget Canadian Indian Reserve Populations, Gordon B. Inglis White and Indian Farmers on the Umatilla Reservation, Theodore Stern and James P. Boggs Reciprocity and Market Exchange on the Flathead Reservation, C. Thomas Brockmann Northern Townsmen, John J. Honigmann Reservation Phenomena in Canada's Northwest Territories, Jacob Fried

The Umayyad caliphate, ruling over much of what is now the modern Middle East after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, governe from Damascus from 661 to750CE, when they were expelled by the Abbasids. Here, Mohammad Rihan sheds light on the tribal system of this empir, by looking at one of its Syrian tribes; the 'Amila, based around today's Jabal 'Amil in southern Lebanon. Using this tribe as a lens through which to examine the wider Umayyad world, he looks at the political structures and conflicts that prevailed at the time, seeking to nuance the understanding of the relationship between the tribes and the ruling elite. For Rihan, early Islamic political history can only be understood in the context of the tribal history. This book thus illustrates how the political and social milieu of the 'Amila tribe sheds light on the wider history of the Umayyad world. Utilizing a wide range of sources, from the books of genealogies to poetry, Rihan expertly portrays Umayyad political life. First providing a background on 'Amila's tribal structure and its functions and dynamics, Rihan then presents the pre-Islamic past of the tribe. Building on this, he then investigates the role the 'Amila played in the emergence of the Umayyad state to understand the ways in which political life developed for the tribes and their relations with those holding political power in the region. By exploring the literature, culture, kinship structures and the socio-political conditions of the tribe, this book highlights the ways in which alliances and divisions shifted and were used by caliphs of the period and offers new insights into the Middle East at a pivotal point in its early and medieval history. This historical analysis thus not only illuminates the political condition of the Umayyad world, but also investigates the ever-important relationship between tribal political structures and state-based rule.

Al-Qaida’s resurgence, despite its limitations, presents a continuing security challenge in Iraq, and the tribal factor remains a significant element in the security equation. Among the conclusions of the study are that Iraq’s Sunni tribes remain an important element in the country’s political life and in the security equation and will continue to be the major arena for Al-Qaida’s recruitment efforts and operations. As such, it will be necessary for the Iraqi government to craft realistic and effective policies that will address the Sunni tribes in order to undercut tribal support for Al-Qaida if the latter is to be defeated decisively. Includes an extensive notes and Bibliography references for further reading