Somali clans

Uncommon card · No. 172650

Somali clans (Somali: Qabaa'ilka Soomaalida; Arabic: القبائل الصومالية, romanized: al-Qabā'il al-Sūmāliyya) are patrilineal kinship groups based on agnatic descent of the Somali people. Tradition and folklore connects the origin of the Somali population by language and way of life, and societal organisations, by customs, and by a feeling of belonging to a broader family among individuals from the Arabian Peninsula. Somalis are a Muslim ethnoreligious group native to the Horn of Africa. Predominantly of Cushitic ancestry, they are segmented into clan groupings which are important kinship units that play a central part in Somali culture and politics. Clan families are patrilineal and are divided into clans, primary lineages or subclans, and dia-paying kinship groups. The clan symbolise the utmost kinship level. It possesses territorial properties and is commonly governed by a Sultan. Primary lineages are directly derived from the clans, and are exogamous political entities with no officially...

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