Title

Tribalism, Identity and Citizenship in Contemporary Qatar

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2013

Publication Title

Anthropology of the Middle East

Department

Sociology & Anthropology

Abstract

This article examines the resurgence of tribalism as a sociological component of contemporary Qatari society. Utilising an ethnographic, mixed-methods design, the article begins with a survey of the substantial scholarship concerning tribes in Arabia. That scholarship provides ideas and understandings that only partially explain the vitality of contemporary tribalism. The article then demonstrates tribalism's ongoing social importance by analysing data from a quantitative survey of 800 Qatari citizens. The article concludes with the ethnographically situated contention that tribalism functions as a mechanism for asserting social power in the contemporary Qatari state, and is therefore an emblematic component of Qatari citizenship.

Volume

8

Issue

2

pp.

46-59

ISSN

1746-0719

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