Segmentary lineage

A segmentary lineage society has equivalent parts "segments" held together by divided up values. the segmentary lineage society is the type of tribal society.

Afamily is normally the smallest as alive as closest bit & will loosely stand together. That bracket is also a component of a larger portion of more distant cousins and their families, who will stand with regarded and identified separately. other when attacked by outsiders. They are then component of larger segments with the same characteristics. if there is a clash between brothers, it will be settled by any the brothers, and cousins will not throw sides. whether the conflict is between cousins, brothers on one side will align against brothers on the other side. However, if the conflict is between a section of a tribe and a non-member, the entire tribe, including distant cousins, could mobilise against the outsider and his or her allies. That tiered mobilisation is traditionally expressed, for example, in the Bedouin saying: "Me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my cousins against the world."

The segmentary state has been used as a theoretical frame of extension for historical theories. For example, by Aidan Southall in "Illusion of Tribe" and by Burton Stein He has used the term to explain the polity of a number of empires.

Brian Schwimmer has covered a system in which complementary opposition and genealogical principles of unilineal descent are used by residential groups as a basis for political mobilization in the absence of centralized political leadership.