Clan
From Encyclopædia
A clan is a kin group whose members claim common ancestry. An important unit of the SOCIAL STRUCTURE of societies throughout the
world, a clan is generally composed of numerous LINEAGES of varying size. Most
stress collective rights and obligations and provide members with mutual support during FEUDS or other conflicts. The term (from Gaelic clann, "offspring") originally referred to Irish and Scottish family groups, known from as early as AD 1000, with common names and ancestors. Scottish
Highland clans early developed distinctive identifying
tartanS (plaid designs), for which they are famous. Anthropologists define a clan as a social group whose members trace their descent unilineally, or exclusively through one line--through males (a patriclan) or through females (a matriclan)--back to a remote ancestor whose name has been forgotten, or to a supposed ancestor, or to a mythical figure or animal (see
TOTEM). Membership in a sib, as clans thus defined are also called, is based solely on descent. Clans are also sometimes defined as compromise kin groups in which membership is based on two principles, a rule of descent and a rule of residence. Defined in this way, a patriclan, for example, consists of a group residing in one place. Its core is a group of males who trace their descent patrilineally; other members are their wives and unmarried sisters and daughters. The wives are included only by virtue of the rule of residence, whereas the men and other women are included because of the rules of residence and fescent.James
Lowell Gibbs, Jr.
bibliography: Cordell, L. S., and Beckerman, S., eds., The Versatility of
kinship (1980); Fox, Robin,
kinship and
marriage: An Anthropological
perspective (1968; repr. 1984); Heers, J., Family Clans in the
middle ages (1976); Hsu, Francis L., Clan,
caste and Club (1963); Moncreiffe, Iain, The
Highland Clans (1967); Pasternak, Burton, Introduction to
kinship and Social Organization (1976); Phillpotts, Bertha, Kindred and Clan in the
middle ages and After (1972).
