What is it about?
Most (69%) of the groups with animal names took them from the men who had fathered these groups. They were named after natural species (ex. Ğundub, “locust”) because the founding ancestors of these groups were named after natural species. About 39% of the names came from terms for predators such as Wolf or Falson. Thus, only a small number of group names refer to dangerous creatures. Although some tribes may have adopted names for predatory animals in order to frighten their adversaries, many more tribes did not adopt them. Some group names seem to be derived from nicknames given to individuals, but this is hard to prove. Other group names (ex. Ḥamāṭah, “wild fig tree”; Ṭalaḥāt, “acacia trees”) refer to features of the desert environment and mark the bearers of such names as Bedouin. But what would motivate a Bedouin group to double-down on its identification with the desert when its Bedouin identity was already established? These “predatory name,” “nickname,” and “Bedouin identity” explanations are not convincing. They depend on speculation about a group’s history and motives for choosing its name. I proposed a new explanation: that Bedouin tribes adopt a combination of human and animal names for their segments to break the connection between the tribe’s ancestral genealogy and the identities of its component groups. My explanation was weakly supported by the evidence. However, this explanation has one advantage: it is tied more closely to the specifics of Bedouin social organization than the others.
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Why is it important?
The question “Why do Bedouin groups have animal names?” was raised by Arab scholars over a thousand years ago and was picked up by European scholars in the nineteenth century. Most previous attempts to answer it, however, were based on speculation and fanciful historical reconstructions. This article is an improvement because it uses empirical evidence to evaluate the various explanations.
Perspectives
For years, I have seen references to the animal names for Arab tribes and lineages in the literature about the Middle East. Sporadic attempts to explain them have been made but these brief efforts were usually arguments for the logical superiority of a given explanation over the others or struggles to demonstrate that one or another of them was more probable. Few made the effort to examine the full range of cases or conclusively lay to rest any explanation because it did not fit the facts. My goal is to reduce some of this indecisiveness and lead others to accept or reject explanations in light of the data.
Dr. William Charles Young
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Conclusions: Varying Levels of Support for Five Hypotheses, January 2024, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004690370_010.
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