Book
Libyan politics: tribe and revolution : an account of the Zuwaya and their government
University of California Press • Berkeley • Published In 1988 • Pages: xii, 297
By: Davis, J. (John).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This study examines the Zuwaya tribe of Western Cyrenaica (in the Districts of Ajbabiya and Kufra) since after the Popular Revolution of 1973-1974. It offers some insight, albeit in a meandering and anecdotal manner, of Bedouin adaptation to state politics. In local elections voting patterns follow lineage and tribal affiliations (political parties are illegal.) Shaikhs do political manuervering to get lineage members to head key committees. Politics seems to follow the model of the segmentary lineage system. Young cadres do not have the knowledge, authority, or political saavy of the traditional shaikhs and the state is dependent on the latter to implement its programs. For example, the decree for universal education was taken up by one shaikh who through personal connections and lobbying eventually got the community to go along. This underscores the continuing importance of women in Bedouin society in forming economic and political connections. The author discovers that in one village the core group consists of consanguinely-related women. Much of the book looks at Qaddafi's rise to power, his socialist state ideology, and the latter's correspondance to a traditional tribal ethos.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Settlement patterns
- Lineages
- Tribe and nation
- Districts
- Elections
- Political movements
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Libyan Bedouin
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1998
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1975-1979
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1975-1979
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Western Cyrenaica, Libya
- NotesAdditional notes
- John Davis
- Includes bibliographical references (p.287-291) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 87019241
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Bedouins