On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An Essay — John Shaqi
On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An EssaySeebohm, Hugh E. (Hugh Exton)
History
On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An Essay
Seebohm, Hugh E. (Hugh Exton)
Greece -- History; Greece -- Law -- Antiquities; Greece -- Social life and customs; Land tenure -- Greece; Tribes
But when once the tribe had found a country to its taste, and had made a
settlement with borders comparatively permanently established, emphasis
would be transferred to the petty quarrels and internal dissensions
arising between different sections within the community itself. The tie of
common blood, uniting all members of the tribe, would be gradually
disregarded and displaced by the less homely and more political relation
of fellow-citizenship, which, though retaining many of the characteristics
of the tribal bond, would necessarily be felt in a very different manner.
In this disintegration of the larger unit, the existence of kinship by
blood would be acknowledged only where the relationship was obvious and
well known. And it would no longer be sufficient merely to prove
membership of a kindred; as those outside certain limits would claim
exemption from the responsibilities entailed by closer relationship.
(M20) So, too, in the matter of religious observance: the reverence of the
individual for the Prytaneum and common hearth of the state would undergo
a change into a less personal sentiment; the rites connected therewith
would be delegated to an official priest; and it is with the head of each
family, surrounded by those who are really conscious of their connection
by blood in common descent from much more immediate ancestors, that the
true tribal feeling would longest survive, though, of course, on much
narrower lines.
The privileges of citizenship were, it will be seen, as carefully guarded
as those of the tribe, but in a more perfunctory and arbitrary manner;
whilst the intimate connection of the members of the family with the
hearth and the graves of their ancestors stands out in strong relief.
By the time of Hesiod, besides the violation of the universal sanctity of
a guest or suppliant, the chief sins are against members of the same
household, defrauding orphans, or insulting an aged parent.(28) Behaviour
to other than blood-relations is regulated by expediency, by what you may
expect in return from your neighbours.(29)
Whether the family is to be regarded as the chief factor in the
composition of the city, or how much of its composition the city owes to
direct inheritance from the tribal system, must, as has been said, be left
unsolved. Some small light may perhaps be shed upon the problem as this
inquiry proceeds.
(M21) At any rate, if the true basis of the organisation of the family and
the kindred, as found in historic times in Greece, could once be
established, material assistance ought to have been gained for rightly
understanding the structure of that earlier society, whatever it was, from
which the rules, that govern those within the bond of kinship, were
survivals.
CHAPTER II. THE MEANING OF THE BOND OF KINSHIP.
παῖδες γὰρ ἀνδρὶ κληδόνες σωτήριοι
θανόντι: φελλοὶ δ᾽ ὥς ἄγουσι δίκτυον,
τὸν ἐκ βυθοῦ κλωστῆρα σώζοντες λίνου.
_Aeschylus._
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