Role Of Tribes in Afghan Governance (1747 - 2001)

Role Of Tribes in Afghan Governance (1747 - 2001)

In Afghanistan, tribal identity is based upon the idea of shared descent from a common ancestor through the male line, or patrilineal descent, and a sentiment of loyalty to the group defined in this way. The role of tribes in afghan governance has a long history, but this paper discusses role of tribes in afghan governance from 1747 to 2001.

Nadir Shah belonged to Afsharid army (a tibe of Iranian dynasty) came to of Kandahar in 1738 and crushed Hussain Hotaki. Then Nadir Shah was murdered on June 19, 1747. Then Dost Mohammad (from Pashtun Muhammadzai tribe) became the ruler. In 1880 Abdur Rahman (from Durrani tribe) started his reign. The Durrani tribe continued to rule over the country till the Barakzai tribe came in power.

The idea of tribe defines group boundaries as well as establishing the basis for relations between groups. The principle of patrilineal descent determines membership in family and lineage, and inheritance of property. Closely related individuals make up households. Groups of households linked together by a common ancestor two or three generations back constitute lineages. Members of lineages may share a common name and have a strong sense of common identity and collective responsibility. Usually they have close interpersonal relationships and marriage ties. The preferred marriage partner for a man is his father's brother's daughters; however, this pattern is usually influenced by political, economic, and social alliances with outside groups in a pattern called hypergamy, in which a man from a dominant group obtains a wife from a socially subordinate and, in some cases, even different ethnic group to cement patron-client relations between two families. A cluster of lineages tracing their descent through a more distant common ancestor forms a clan, and a cluster of similarly related clans forms a tribe.

The main characteristic of a tribal society is the existence of several levels of more inclusive social groupings that can theoretically be mobilized for corporate action for political or military reasons. In the anthropological literature this has been referred to as the principle of segmentation. Segmentary organization (which is an idealized model or construct) constitutes a pattern in which descent-based units such as households, lineages, clans, and tribes are linked to other households, lineages, clans, and tribes through sets of common ancestors over past generations to make up large ...