A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a
tribal society or
chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of
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 confl ...
is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western
Afroeurasia
Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia or the Old World) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Its mainland is the largest and most populou ...
.
Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as an intermediate stage between the
band society
A band society, sometimes called a camp, or in older usage, a horde, is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family or clan. The general consensus of modern anthropolo ...
of the
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
stage and
civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
...
with centralized, super-regional government based in
cities
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
. Anthropologist
Elman Service
Elman Rogers Service (1915–1996) was an American cultural anthropologist.
Biography
He was born on May 18, 1915 in Tecumseh, Michigan and died on November 14, 1996 in Santa Barbara, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1941 from the ...
distinguishes two stages of tribal societies: simple societies organized by limited instances of social rank and prestige, and more
stratified societies led by chieftains or tribal kings (
chiefdoms). Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings are thought to have flourished from the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...
stage into the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
, albeit in competition with
urban civilisations and
empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
s beginning in the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
.
In the case of tribal societies of
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states, tribal chiefs may represent their tribe or ethnicity in a form of
self-government.
Chieftain
The most common types are the chairman of a council (usually of "
elder
An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority.
Elder or elders may refer to:
Positions Administrative
* Elder (administrative title), a position of authority
Cultural
* North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and ...
s") and/or a broader
popular assembly in "parliamentary" cultures, the war chief (may be an alternative or additional post in war time), the hereditary chief, and the politically dominant
medicineman
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and cerem ...
.
The term is usually distinct from chiefs at lower levels, such as
village chief (geographically defined) or
clan chief (an essentially genealogical notion). The descriptive "tribal" requires an ethno-cultural identity (racial, linguistic, religious etc.) as well as some political (representative, legislative, executive and/or judicial) expression. In certain situations, and especially in a
colonial context, the most powerful member of either a
confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical iss ...
or a
federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
of such tribal, clan or village chiefs would be referred to as a
paramount chief
A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and arc ...
.
History
Classical sources of information about tribal societies are external descriptions such as from
Greco-Roman ethnography, which identified societies, surrounding the societies of the ethnographers, as tribal.
States and
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their reli ...
, particularly in the last centuries, forced their central governments onto many remaining tribal societies.
In some instances tribes have retained or regained partial self-government and their lifestyles, with
Indigenous peoples rights having been fought for and some being secured on state or international levels.
Terms of specific tribal chiefdoms
Americas
* ''
Lonco
A lonko or lonco (from Mapudungun ''longko'', literally "head"), is a chief of several Mapuche communities. These were often ulmen, the wealthier men in the lof. In wartime, lonkos of the various local rehue or the larger aillarehue would gather in ...
'' (mapudungun: longko, "head") among the
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
*
Morubixaba — tribal Cacique (chief) of the
Tupi people
A subdivision of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic families, the Tupi people were one of the largest groups of indigenous Brazilians before its colonization. Scholars believe that while they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, from about 2,900 ...
* Oubutu (among the Kalinago people of the southern Caribbean)
* Rajiv (among the central Trinidadian people of Freeport)
* Tyee, a tribal chief of the
Chinookan peoples
Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages. Since at least 4000 BCE Chinookan peoples have resided along the Lower and Middle Columbia River (W ...
in the Pacific Northwest of the present-day United States
*
Cacique
A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a S ...
, a term used among the
Taino Nation of the
Caribbean islands
Almost all of the Caribbean islands are in the Caribbean Sea, with only a few in inland lakes. The largest island is Cuba. Other sizable islands include Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the smaller islands a ...
, later adopted by the Spanish to refer to all heads of
chiefdoms
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 ...
whom they encountered:
Cuauhtémoc,
Tecun Uman,
Tenamaxtli,
Atlácatl
Atlácatl (Nahuatl ''Ātlācatl'': ''ātl'' "water", ''tlācatl'' "human being" – whose death is sometimes put at 1528) is reputed to have been the name of the last ruler of an indigenous state based around the city of Cuzcatlan, in the south ...
, Lempira,
Nicarao (cacique) Nicarao was said to be the name of an indigenous chieftain or cacique who presided over a territory in southwestern Nicaragua during the early 16th century. Based on research done by historians in 2002, it was discovered that his real name was Macu ...
,
Tupac Amaru II
Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...
*
Sachem
Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...
, term of chiefdom of the
Algonquian nations of present-day New England in the United States
*
Afro Bolivian king
Africa
* Ishe or She for male chiefs and Shekadzi for a woman (
Shona people of
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
)
* Agwam (
Atyap and
Bajju people of central
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
)
*
Eze (
Igbo people
The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and formerly also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'',
*
*
* ''Eboans'', ''Heebo'';
natively ) are an ethnic group in Nigeria. They are primarily found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. A s ...
of Nigeria)
* Gbong Gwom Jos (of the
Berom people of Nigeria)
* Ker (
Luo people)
*
Kgosi
A (; ) is the title for a hereditary leader of a Batswana tribe.
Usage
The word "kgosi" is a Setswana term for "king" or "chief". Various affixes can be added to the word to change its meaning: adding the prefix ''di-'' creates the plural form ...
(amongst the
Tswana people of Botswana and South Africa)
*
Lamido
Lamido (Adlam: , pl. Lamibe ) is the Anglicisation of a term from the Fula language or Fulfulde, used to refer to a ruler. In the language it is properly ''laamiiɗo'' (, pl. ''laamiiɓe'' ), derived from the verbal root ''laamu-'' meaning "leader ...
(in the Hausaland region of Niger and Nigeria)
* Mogho Naba (in the Ouagadougou region of Burkina Faso)
*
Nkosi Nkosi is a Nguni word for “king”, “chief“ and ”lord”.
”Nkosi” is a common name and surname amongst Nguni people, and may refer to:
*Nkosi Johnson (1989–2001), South African child with HIV/AIDS who made a powerful impact on public ...
(Zulu, Ndebele and Xhosa peoples, South Africa and Zimbabwe)
*
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