A clan is a group of people united by
actual or
perceived kinship[
]
and
descent
Descent may refer to:
As a noun Genealogy and inheritance
* Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
* Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
**Pedigree chart or family tree
**Ancestry
**Lineal descendant
** Heritage
* ...
. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or
apical ancestor
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...
. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be
endogamous
Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships.
Endogamy is common in many cultu ...
, meaning that their members can marry one another. Clans preceded more centralized forms of community organization and government, and exist in every country. Members may identify with a
coat of arms or other symbol to show that they are an . Kinship-based groups may also have a symbolic ancestor, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity.
Etymology
The English word "clan" is derived from old Irish
meaning "children", "offspring", "progeny" or "descendants"; it is not from the word for "family" or "clan" in either
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
or Scottish Gaelic. According to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary'', the word "clan" was introduced into English in around 1425, as a descriptive label for the organization of society in Ireland and the
Scottish Highlands.
None of the Irish and Scottish Gaelic terms for kinship groups is cognate to English ''clan''; Scottish Gaelic ' means "descendants":
* ' means (English) "clan"
* ' means "family" in the sense of the nuclear family, or can include more distant relatives living in the same house
* ' means either "family" in the sense of "household", or everyone who lives in the house, including non-relatives
* ' means "family" in the broad sense of "kinsfolk"
Clans as political units
In different cultures and situations, a clan usually has different meaning than other kin-based groups, such as
tribe
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. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
s and
bands. Often, the distinguishing factor is that a clan is a smaller, integral part of a larger
society such as a
tribe
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. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
,
chiefdom
A chiefdom is a form of hierarchical political organization in non-industrial societies usually based on kinship, and in which formal leadership is monopolized by the legitimate senior members of select families or 'houses'. These elites form a ...
, or a
state. In some societies, clans may have an official leader such as a
chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the bo ...
,
matriarch or
patriarch; or such leadership role is performed by elders. In others, leadership positions may have to be achieved.
Examples include
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...
,
Korean, and
Japanese clans, which exist as distinct social groupings within their respective nations. Note, however, that tribes and bands can also be components of larger societies. The early
Norse clans, the , are often translated as "house" or "line". The Biblical ''tribes'' of Israel were composed of many clans.
Arab clans are sub-tribal groups within Arab society. Native American and
First Nations peoples, often referred to as "tribes", also have clans. For instance,
Ojibwa bands are smaller parts of the
Ojibwa people or tribe in
North America. The many Native American peoples are distinguished by language and culture, and most have clans and bands as the basic kinship organizations. In some cases tribes recognized each other's clans; for instance, both the
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
and
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
tribes of the Southeast United States had fox and bear clans, who felt a kinship that reached beyond their respective tribes.
Apart from these different historical traditions of kinship, conceptual confusion arises from colloquial usages of the term. In post-
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
countries, for example, it is quite common to speak of "clans" in reference to informal networks within the economic and political sphere. This usage reflects the assumption that their members act towards each other in a particularly close and mutually supportive way, approximating the solidarity among kinsmen. Similar usage of the term applies to specific groups of various cultures and nationalities involved in organized
crime.
Polish clans differ from most others as they are a collection of
families who bear the same
coat of arms, as opposed to claiming a common descent (see
Polish heraldry). There are multiple closely related clans in the
Indian subcontinent, especially
South India.
Romani people have many clans which are called vitsa in Romani.
Clannism
Clannism (in Somali culture, qabiilism) is system of society based on clan affiliation.
The
Islamic world, the
Near East,
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
and
East Africa in general, and
Somali culture specifically, is
patriarchal and traditionally centered on
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
clans or tribes.
Clans by continent or region
See also
*
Clan (video gaming)
In video games, a clan, community, guild or faction is an organized group of video game players that regularly play together in one or more multiplayer games. Many clans take part in gaming competitions, but some clans are just small gaming squads ...
*
Endogamy
*
Extended family
*
Uradel
*
Gotra
References
{{Authority control