It's the Tribes (merged thread)

[tribeguy]

Knowing not a lot about Hezbollah, other than what is relevant to their use of violence for political aims, I would be amazed if they had any tribal affiliation at all. Even if they did, it would be almost entirely irrelevant.

I am more curious than that - the question to me is whether or not there is an area in Hezballah where tribal or familial affiliation is relevant. The mere presence of Nasarallah ((Al-Musawi)) at the top of that pyramid seems to indicate that he has credibility, and I believe that credibility was established before the Israel/Hezballah war. I think it would be wise to see if there is more than one member that comes from a noble tribe. It's a political Islam credibility thing, with mutual reinforcement between familial/tribal and organizational honor.

I initially agree that it's not totally relevant - but tribalism isn't dead in Lebanon - not totally, and where it does it exist it needs to be known. This has the potential of giving leverage to those in the field. So, I wouldn't just brush that off despite what we think we know about Lebanon today.

Hezballah has a Shi'ite power base, particularly amongst the poor. I suspect that there is a tribal element there, but that might be irrelevant, as you say. It also might be a gateway to understanding a great many things about the organization. If we can't entirely describe Hezballah from the inside out, maybe we can get something of value by analyzing it from the tribal periphery? So the question then becomes which are the tribes in Lebanon that are predominantly Shi'ite. I suspect that the Druze and Maronite communities keep tabs on these things. I'd love some academic leads into that area, if anybody has them. I do know that both the ((Al-Luhayb)) ((Al-Jubur)) and the ((Al-Sada Al-Musawiya)) have a presence in Lebanon, however, to what extent I don't know.

I'd also like to know about any intertribal and intratribal disputes, grudges, "fitnas," alliances, intermarriages and anything else that might seem like minutiae regarding the ((Al-Musuwi)) tribe, if anybody has any visibility into that.

jcustis - the ninewah thing is panning out interestingly - not on its own necessarily, but in combination with the other provincial studies and in context of the major players in the Sunni insurgency. The tribal picture really explains a lot about why Mosul is kind of a stronghold for the insurgents, particularly in light of noble tribal networks that go from Baghdad and Al-Anbar all the way to Ninewah. There are a couple of noble tribes with at least a secondary presence in each province north of Baghdad. It's interesting to review this data after being on the ground without it. A$$-backwards, but interesting - should have had this in 2003 before I ever set foot in country.

The source that I am using is biased somewhat - politicized to accomodate Saddam's tribal policies. That being said, I don't entirely doubt it, and consider it a tool to be validated or invalidated with field work. However, much of this data lines up nicely with what I have seen, so I am confident that it at least describes the tribal picture, and definitely the noble tribal picture, with a workable degree of fidelity. It's good to have 'Azzawi's work to compare alongside Al-Rudhan's - both had different reasons for doing their tribal studies, but they seem to intersect a great deal, so hopefully therein lies some of the truth.

I am looking forward to the census - although it too will be politicized.

V/r,

tribeguy