Among the many forms of social organization that mankind has passed on the path of its development, the longest, according to scientists, is the tribal system. Having been born several millennia ago, it has survived to this day in the form of historical remnants of some African peoples, such as, for example, the Bushmen living in the Kalahari desert and the Fulani living in the territory stretching from Mauritania to Sudan. Let us dwell on its main characteristics.
Consanguinity based community
The principle of power in the tribal system is based on blood-kinship ties, which make up the entire structure of society. In the scientific literature, they are called local groups, clans, lines, or simply clans. All these terms are similar in meaning and do not have a fundamental difference between themselves.
Among the most characteristic signs of the tribal system, it is customary to single out family ties of all members of the community. Family relationships uniting them, as a rule, span several generations at once, including parents and their children. In addition, for joint occupations in agriculture, hunting, religious ceremonies, etc., broader social ties can be used that encompass numerous distant relatives.
Tribal Clan
As for the solution of such large-scale tasks as the organization of military campaigns with the aim of capturing new territories or repelling aggression from the neighbors, in this case great human resources were always required, and members of individual clan clans united into tribes.
Their number, in all probability, was small. In any case, among ethnic groups living up to our time in a tribal system, it rarely exceeds 100 people. The only exceptions are the very large Fulani people mentioned above, who live in the western part of the African continent and manage to join many of the achievements of civilization. Scientists believe that by the beginning of the XXI century its number could reach 1 million people.
Millennium social system
Thus, the term “tribe” in this case should be understood as the totality of separate independent and compactly living communities, whose members are united by common occupations, culture and language. However, the basis of their social ties to this day is intracommunal consanguinity. If the members of the tribe lead a sedentary lifestyle, forming a territorial settlement cell, then they represent the population of a separate village, the size of which varies from the number of inhabitants.
More often, representatives of these nationalities prefer not to settle in one place, but to constantly migrate, getting their own food by gathering, hunting and fishing. In this case, according to scientists, the density of their population can range from 1-2 to 250-300 people per square kilometer. No matter how unlikely this may seem, the tribal system, which is an extremely archaic form of organization of society, has managed, surviving for millennia, to survive to this day.
Ways to study the tribal system
Studying the life features of the Bushmen living in the Kalahari desert, West African Fulani and a number of other nationalities, many centuries ago stopped in their social development, scientists have the opportunity to more fully present the features of social self-government under a tribal system that once united our distant ancestors. In this case, the peculiarities of the existence of various ethnic groups are taken into account.
An example of ancient democracy
The results of archaeological excavations, and most importantly, the observations made by expeditions working in remote areas of Africa, indicate that the power structure in the tribes united by the tribal system included three main elements. The leader of the tribe had the greatest authority in making certain decisions, but at the same time he was obliged to take into account the opinions of members of the council of elders, which was not an elected body, but was formed solely from persons who reached a certain age.
As for particularly important cases, such as the organization of military campaigns, the change of the territory of joint residence or migration, etc., the question was submitted to the general meeting of members of the clan. The competence of this public authority was the choice of the leader, as well as his replacement in case of non-compliance with the requirements. The most powerful and experienced members of the clan became candidates for such a high post, but they could not do without public support. It is characteristic that in this respect our distant ancestors stood on completely democratic positions.
The value of the tribal system in world history
The role played in the history of mankind by the tribal organization of life is unusually great. One of the founders of modern anthropology - the American archaeologist and ethnographer Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) - repeatedly emphasized in her works that it was she who allowed people to break with primitive savagery and led to civilization step by step. A portrait of the scientist is given below.
Of course, scientists came to such conclusions, using mainly observations of our contemporaries, who still have not been able to break with their historical past, and only partially using data obtained during excavations. However, artefacts obtained by archaeologists also told a lot. In particular, they made it possible to draw up a fairly complete picture of the decomposition of the tribal system among the Eastern Slavs.
The weakening of family ties among the Slavs
This process, which began in the first centuries of the past millennium, led to the fact that already in the 6th century the economic system of the majority of agricultural communities based on territorial-tribal relations turned into a semi-state entity, where not blood-related but political and military ties. In addition, a common factor that strengthened these social structures was the commonality of the directions of economic development of the entire community.
The results of the studies show that during the VIII-IX centuries among the eastern Slavs the tribal system was replaced by the widespread distribution of neighboring communities. This is explained primarily by the fact that due to low labor productivity, there was a need for a large number of workers who could not be provided by social groups composed solely on the basis of clan ties. In addition, during this period there was an active development of new territories, and small tribes alone could not provide control over their distribution.
The collapse of the tribal system
These and many other factors led to the fact that already in the second half of the 10th century, the Eastern Slavs had the clan system replaced by a new formation, which came to be called the neighborhood community, or, in the old word, “foreview”. It turned out to be very viable and, having undergone only minor changes, remained until the beginning of the 20th century.
In Russia, these communities, distributed exclusively in rural areas and consisting of compactly living peasants, were called the "world." It is noted that due to their large number and economic stability, they had a significant impact on many historical processes. The end of the peasant communities was laid only with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks and the beginning of mass collectivization.