Emic and Etic in Re-theorizing «Tribe» A Step toward an Arab Anthropological Discourse

Abstract

The aim of this article is twofold. The first is to reconsider a phenomenon that has been neglected or marginalized by nationalist thought and the postcolonial critique in anthropology: tribe and tribalism in the Maghreb- Machreq region. The second is an experiment in how to produce a new discourse in anthropology which results from a confrontation between the epistemic tradition of that discipline on the one hand, and the epistemic tradition of that region on the other hand. This is one response – admittedly limited and tentative - to a lament frequently formulated by writers from the region: «how come we are powerless at developing knowledge from our own tradition»?