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The Animal Names of the Arab Ancestors
Explaining the Non-human Names of Arab Kinship Groups, Volume 2-2 Appendices
Series: - Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East, Volume: 178.2-2
- The Animal Names of the Arab Ancestors, Volume: 178.2-2
Author:
In the Arab world, people belong to kinship groups (lineages and tribes). Many lineages are named after animals, birds, and plants. Why? This survey evaluates five old explanations â âtotemism,â âemulation of predatory animals,â âancestor eponymy,â ânicknaming,â and âBedouin proximity to nature.â It suggests a new hypothesis: Bedouin tribes use animal names to obscure their internal cleavages. Such tribes wax and wane as they attract and lose allies and clients; they include âattachedâ elements as well as actual kin. To prevent outsiders from spotting âattachedâ groups, Bedouin tribes scatter non-human names across their segments, making it difficult to link any segment with a human ancestor. Youngâs argument contributes to theories of tribal organization, Arab identity, onomastics, and Near Eastern kinship.
William C. Young, Ph.D. (1988), Associate Professor of Anthropology (retired), has published an ethnography of the RaÅ¡Äyidah Bedouin of Sudan (Harcourt Brace, 1996) and many articles about Arab cultural traditions (hospitality, Bedouin society, and ritual).
"This is an extraordinary labor of effort and love for a subject long abandoned within anthropology, namely the early fascination with the concept of âtotemism.â This book is not a defense of the idea of totemism as it has evolved well over a century, but offers alternative explanations for the use of animal names for people and groups. It is obvious that the use of terms for animals and plants has widespread relevance in kinship terminology worldwide. This is especially the case for the history of Arabic kinship names for both individuals and tribal groups." - Daniel Martin Varisco, Ãsterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften , Kinship, 4(2), 2024.
Appendix K: List of Kinship Groups Named after Birds
Appendix L: List of Kinship Groups Named After Mammals
Appendix M: List of Kinship Groups Named after Plants
Appendix N: List of Kinship Groups Named after Insects, Spiders, and Scorpions
Appendix O: List of Kinship Groups Named after Reptiles and Amphibians
Appendix P: List of Kinship Groups Named after Types of Marine Life
Appendix Q: Ancestor Eponymy: Kinship Group Names Derived from Biological Terms That Are Also Used as Personal Names
Appendix R: List of Nicknames Derived from Terms for Natural Species Found in the Onomasticon Arabicum
Appendix S: Non-genealogical Names of Tribes, Sub-tribes, and Clans in Nineteenth-Century Palestine
Appendix T: List of Sedentary Kinship Groups Named after Natural Species in Northern Jordan
Appendix L: List of Kinship Groups Named After Mammals
Appendix M: List of Kinship Groups Named after Plants
Appendix N: List of Kinship Groups Named after Insects, Spiders, and Scorpions
Appendix O: List of Kinship Groups Named after Reptiles and Amphibians
Appendix P: List of Kinship Groups Named after Types of Marine Life
Appendix Q: Ancestor Eponymy: Kinship Group Names Derived from Biological Terms That Are Also Used as Personal Names
Appendix R: List of Nicknames Derived from Terms for Natural Species Found in the Onomasticon Arabicum
Appendix S: Non-genealogical Names of Tribes, Sub-tribes, and Clans in Nineteenth-Century Palestine
Appendix T: List of Sedentary Kinship Groups Named after Natural Species in Northern Jordan
All who are interested in the anthropology of the Middle East, the meanings of Arab names, Bedouin society, Arab kinship, and totemism. Specialists in Semitic onomastics will also enjoy it.