ABSTRACT
Tribes were regarded as being 'split into segments, primary, secondary and tertiary tribal sections', which were referred to by the names of the 'dominant' clans and lineages.8
However, as Tapper reminds us, in practice most of the terms that have been translated into English as 'tribe' are highly ambiguous, and
attempts to give them, or tribe itself, precision as to either level, function or essence are misdirected. 'Even in the most apparently consistent segmentary terminology', he points out, 'individual terms are ambiguous', not merely as far as level is concerned, but also in their implications for behaviour and identity.9 As with English words like 'family', 'group' and 'community', it is the ambiguity of the terms and the flexibility of the system which make them useful. As a result one cannot expect all groups which have been referred to as 'tribes' to be identical in scale or function or expect such usage to yield terms for an objective classification and comparison.10
