Tribes and tribalism of Middle East are becoming new research area and issue area because of role enlargement of major tribes in the Middle Eastern States. Tribe and tribalism in the Middle East has been an historical entity and core of political, eco ...

Tribes and tribalism of Middle East are becoming new research area and issue area because of role enlargement of major tribes in the Middle Eastern States. Tribe and tribalism in the Middle East has been an historical entity and core of political, economic, and cultural action norm for a long time. But the role of tribe and tribalism was being declining in the process of nation-state building. As soon as it came to power in July 1968, the Bath Party announced in its Communique No.1 its rejection of 'tribalism.' "We are against religious sectarianism, racism, and tribalism." In later years, too, in official party ideology tribal shaikhs and tribalism have been regarded as the epitome of backwardness and social reaction. This policy to the tribalism has been continued in Saddam era since 1987. But anti-tribalism policy was changed in the late 1980s or in the early 1990s. The reason was that because Saddam's regime faced in crisis of legitimacy not only in Arab society but also from outside world. Especially there was shii Intifada, anti-Saddam regime movement in the south Iraq in 1991. Saddam's tribalism policy was centered on his tribe, the Albu Nasir tribe and some major tribes, the Dulaym tribal confederation, the Shammar tribal confederation, the al-Juburi tribal confederation, the Ubaydis tribal confederation, the Azza tribal confederation, the Takrit tribal confederation. Albu Nasir tribe is composed of core of power and other major tribes the first one of several circles of power.
What is the meaning of study of tribalism? First, we have to consider tribe as the political actor in the Middle East, especially in Iraq because tribe is the entity in political process of Iraq. Second, We can ask following; what's the status of tribe in state-society relations in Iraq? Is the tribe a part of state or a part of society in historical changing era? In Saddam era after 1990, there is the trend of statization of tribe or tribalization of state in Iraq. Third, there is dispute about 'the character of state' of Iraq. Is the state of Iraq tribal state, or capitalist state(or state in capitalist society), or bureaucratic authoritative state, or Islamic state, rentier state? These dispute is very important issue in social science, especially political science. Fourth, we have to consider about the trend of political, social, economic change after 2003 Iraq war as social scientist. The study of every social scientist of Middle East, therefore, will be centered on the tribe or tribalism.