This article introduces a new phenomenon in the study of civil war: tribal wartime social order. The proposed theory of tribalocracy, or tribal rule, integrates insights from civil war studies, anthropology, and sociology to provide a nuanced account of social order and its transformation in tribal warzones. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the Hauran region in southern Syria, the proposed theory explains how endogenous rebel groups, seeking to maximize a wide range of benefits rendered by tribal shaykhs, refrain from establishing a new form of order. Instead, they co-opt, reassert, and operate under a pre-existing order in reserve. In so doing, rebels rule minimally, leaving most of the local affairs in the hands of civilian actors closely monitored by tribal shaykhs. Given the fluid and volatile nature of wartime order, the proposed theory offers a compelling explanatory framework to account for the transition in the forms of wartime social order from a civilian model to one dominated by rebels. The theory and empirical results expand our understanding of the localized and kinship-based forms of solidarity, the origins of rebel organizations, the source of wartime social order, civilian agency, and the roles played by tribal shaykhs under rebel rule.

中文翻译：

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部落政治：叙利亚南部的部落战时社会秩序及其转变


本文介绍了内战研究中的一个新现象：部落战时社会秩序。提出的部落统治或部落统治理论整合了内战研究、人类学和社会学的见解，对部落战区的社会秩序及其转变进行了细致入微的解释。借鉴在叙利亚南部豪兰地区的广泛田野调查，该理论解释了内生性反叛团体如何寻求最大限度地利用部落谢赫提供的广泛利益，避免建立一种新的秩序形式。相反，他们拉拢、重申并在预先存在的保留秩序下运作。这样一来，叛军的统治就微乎其微，将大部分地方事务掌握在平民行为者手中，并受到部落谢赫的密切监视。鉴于战时秩序的流动性和波动性，所提出的理论提供了一个令人信服的解释框架，以解释战时社会秩序形式从平民模式向叛乱分子主导模式的转变。该理论和实证结果扩展了我们对地方化和基于亲属关系的团结形式、叛乱组织的起源、战时社会秩序的来源、平民代理以及部落谢赫在叛乱统治下所扮演的角色的理解。