Introduction

Social identities are subject to constant redefinition by their bearers and others. Groups can change their composition, or their status, or their name, or their affiliation, or even all these features. The historical circumstances of how the clan relationships came to be are also of some sociological interest. In the past historical anthropology has been regarded as a continental tradition and the sociological variant as typical of Britain. Anthropology thus divided into two disciplines which were pursued in different places by different people. Many of the inter-ethnic clan relationships discussed in the chapter thus stem from the fact that the original population split and became ethnically differentiated across clan boundaries; others stem from later inter-ethnic migrations. Inter-ethnic clan relationships cannot easily be incorporated in the treelike diagrams which depict segmentary systems.