What tribal societies can tell us about justice and liberty

[marct]

An excellent article just appeared at Stinkyjournalism.org entitled Rebutting Jared Diamond's Savage Portrait: What tribal societies can tell us about justice and liberty. While it is part of a larger, ongoing, argument about Jared Diamond's New Yorker article, it has some very interesting lessons for understanding how tribal societies operate.

How do tribal communities in developing countries without functioning police, judges, law courts and prisons ensure social stability? This question is of perennial interest to anyone familiar with tribal societies. It is difficult for those of us familiar with such state institutions of law enforcement to imagine how people in tribal environments create order, particularly in dense populations like that of the New Guinea Highlands which also prizes individual political autonomy. The popular image – traceable to Renaissance times, when Europeans first encountered tribal peoples – is of savages condemned to disorderly, even anarchic lives of constant violence and frequent bloodletting.

[MikeF]

Hi Marc,

Several years ago, Toby Dodge, a British historian who wrote extensively on Iraq and the failures of nation-building, tackled the issue of modernity and governance through the lens of Somalia describing how the tribes maintained law and order after state-failure through their accepted and traditional norms, values, and beliefs. While many are uncomfortable of this notion, primarily because it challenges the permanence of the Westphalian nation-state and the same areas lead to a breeding ground for al Qaeda's unconventional warfare campaign, I think there is some truth to his thesis that tends to support Paul Sillitoe & Mako John Kuwimb's rebuttal.

Sometimes, acephalous does not equate to anomie or anarchy.

Instead, sometimes, others (formerly savages) have a way of working things out that are simply foreign to the “civilized” world. Specifically, they have a better tolerance for levels of violence. It took me a long time to accept and fully understand this distinction. In Iraq, as the time passed when the tribes were working things out and the situation declined into a civil war, the world was very bloody, and I was struck at how inhuman my neighbors acted towards each other. Eventually, we intervened and forced arbitration.
As I reeled in the Sunnis, I was unsure of how to approach to force some acceptance that beheading their neighbors and stealing their land was unacceptable. I finally just shamed them by making them watch the actual video of the executions over and over pointing out how they stood cheering while their friends died. The elders cried over and over, but they remained stuck in inaction for some time to make amends.

I walked away from that deployment just shaking my head and conceding that there are some people that you just can’t help.

A year later, my friends (both US and Iraqis) wrote to me to tell me of the sustained peace that had come back to the valley. I was in disbelief. I thought they’d simply just keep killing each other, but then I was reminded of the conflict resolution negotiations we had conducted in my final days there. Sunnis and Shias, all neighbors, some interrelated, meeting for the first time since they had last been fighting. I did not know what to expect. When we walked into the building, they were all crying and hugging each other proclaiming how much they missed each other. I was befuddled. These were the same men, who three months prior, were literally trying to kill each other. In truth, I had to learn that this was normal for them. They were conditioned to periods of peace under controlled governance with periods of intense fighting breaking out with each regime change followed with conflict resolution and amends.

Conversely, I think sometimes we fail to grasp how modernity is viewed by the tribes. In the case of Sayyid Qutb,when attending school in Colorado, he did not see a land of freedom, self-reliance, and endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He observed a promiscuous land with no values- a Devil’s playground.

I suppose it's all about how you look at the society. In some ways, to each their own, that is, until you decide to fly planes into someone else's playground .

v/r

Mike

[Rex Brynen]

Conversely, I think sometimes we fail to grasp how modernity is viewed by the tribes. In the case of Sayyid Qutb,when attending school in Colorado, he did not see a land of freedom, self-reliance, and endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He observed a promiscuous land with no values- a Devil’s playground.

We do have to be careful that we don't attribute everything in the broader Middle East to tribalism. Qutb came from a highly literate, middle class notable family in which (as for most Egyptians) the concept of "tribe" was the stuff of old stories, and not really relevant to their lives.

Extended family? Yes, perhaps. Tribe? Not at all.

[Dayuhan]

The popular image – traceable to Renaissance times, when Europeans first encountered tribal peoples – is of savages condemned to disorderly, even anarchic lives of constant violence and frequent bloodletting.

That's one of the prevailing myths about tribal peoples. The other, which in many quarters has actually gained ascendancy, is what one might call the Avatar construct: the belief that tribal peoples are the keepers of some ancient lost wisdom, and are invariably living in perfect harmony with nature and with each other.

We could argue all day ove which myth is more absurd, but I doubt we'd ever resolve the question.

[MikeF]

We do have to be careful that we don't attribute everything in the broader Middle East to tribalism. Qutb came from a highly literate, middle class notable family in which (as for most Egyptians) the concept of "tribe" was the stuff of old stories, and not really relevant to their lives.

Extended family? Yes, perhaps. Tribe? Not at all.

Good catch Rex, and I hope that the greater point of my post is not minimized by my generalization. So, I'll clarify that "we" to just "me." Qutb may not have been the best example, but I was still working on my first cup of coffee while absorbing all the text. In reality, I suppose that each man is of his own while influenced by his specific and individual culture, religion, family, and tribe; however, to that end, we, and that is for all of us, must and should not equate tribal to poor.

As one elder told me about his greater tribe, "Mike, we've had all the KBR contracts since Desert Storm One."

[Schmedlap]

I wonder if the focus should be less on the mode of organization (tribe, clan, community, etc) and more on the means of dispute resolution and collective decisions. Law in the absence of state codes need not be the domain of just tribes and tribes need not only govern themselves according to custom.

[MikeF]

I wonder if the focus should be less on the mode of organization (tribe, clan, community, etc) and more on the means of dispute resolution and collective decisions. Law in the absence of state codes need not be the domain of just tribes and tribes need not only govern themselves according to custom.

From my layman's perspective, that seems to be crux of the debate within international law. In other words, what do we do when our prescribed definitions fail to describe or define the situation? When the state fails, who is responsible or culpable for international transgressions? Who can intervene to mediate or arbitrate?

[Tukhachevskii]

We do have to be careful that we don't attribute everything in the broader Middle East to tribalism. Qutb came from a highly literate, middle class notable family in which (as for most Egyptians) the concept of "tribe" was the stuff of old stories, and not really relevant to their lives.

Extended family? Yes, perhaps. Tribe? Not at all.

In Yemen a lot of the "educated" people I met told me that they felt that there was a real tension or tug-of-war between the "liberating" aspects of the city with its emphasis on class association and the tribal aspects outside the city. Inside the city they didn't often want to mention it but the jambia did give it away on the new arrivals who wore it and when "professionals" wore them to functions (usually prefering a neutral coloured one instead.