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Teip

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For the Norwegian motion picture production company, seeTeip Ltd.
Elders from theZumsoy[ru]teip,c.1906.

Ateip(alsotaip,tayp,teyp;ChechenandIngush:тайпа, romanized:taypa[ˈtajpə],lit.family,kin,clan,tribe[1]) is aChechenandIngushtribalorganization orclan,self-identified through descent from a commonancestoror geographic location. It is a sub-unit of thetukkhumandshahar.There are about 150 Chechen and 120 Ingush teips. Teips played an important role in the socioeconomic life of the Chechen and Ingush peoples before and during theMiddle Ages,and continue to be an important cultural part to this day.

Traditional rules and features

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Common teip rules and some features include:[2]

  • The right of communal land tenure.
  • Common revenge practices for the murder of a teip member or insulting of the members of a teip.
  • Unconditionalexogamy.
  • Election of a teip representative.
  • Election of a headman.
  • Election of a military leader in case of war.
  • Open sessions of the Council of Elders.
  • The right of the teip to depose its representatives.
  • Representation of women is done by male relatives.
  • The right of adoption of outside people.
  • The transfer of property of departed members to members of the teip.
  • The teip has a defined territory.
  • The teip constructeda teip toweror another building or natural monument convenient as a shelter, e.g. a fortress.
  • The teip had its own teip cemetery.
  • The teip tradition of hospitality.

Identity, land and descent

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Teips being sub-units of tukkhums, members of the same teip are traditionally thought to descend from a common ancestor, and thus are considered distant blood relatives. Teip names were often derived from an ancestral founder.[3]As is also true of many other North Caucasian peoples, traditionally, Chechen and Ingush men were expected to know the names and places of origin of ancestors on their father's side, going back many generations, with the most common number being considered 7.[3]Many women also memorized this information, and keener individuals can often recite their maternal ancestral line as well.[3]The memorization of the information serves as a way to impute clan loyalty to younger generations.[3]Amongpeoples of the Caucasus,traditionally, large scale land disputes could sometimes be solved with the help of mutual knowledge of whose ancestors resided where and when.[3]

A teip's ancestral land was thus held as sacred, because of its close link to teip identity. It was typically marked by clan symbols, including the clan cemetery, tower, and sanctuary.[3]Land being scarce in mountainous Ingushetia and Chechnya, after the feudal system was overthrown, each teip claimed a definite area of land.[4]Land boundaries were marked by stones with specific marks pointing to a local place of worship.[4]While at first land was owned collectively, individual cultivation ultimately became the norm.[4]In old Chechen and Ingush tradition, women were allowed to own land.[4]The vehement Ingush and Chechen opposition to Sovietcollectivizationhas been explained by the threat it posed to the traditional customs of land allotment.[4]

Political function

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Eachteiphad an elected council of elders, a court of justice, and its own set of customs. The civilian chief, referred to as thethamdaorkh'alkhancha,chaired the council of elders. Thebaechcha,meanwhile, was the military leader.[3]

Subdivisions

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The teip has its own subdivisions, in order of their progressive nesting, thevaer,thegar,and theneqe.Theneqeconsists of households sharing the same family name, while thegaris a number ofneqeunits that together form a common lineage, however that is not always the case.[5]The basic social unit, meanwhile, was the household, consisting of the extended family spanning three or four generations, referred to as the ts'aor thedözal,with married daughters usually living with in the household of their spouse. Brothers would share the same land and livestock.[5]

Formation of new teips

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The number of teips has been unstable in recent history. While there were 59 Chechen and Ingush teips in the early 19th century, this swelled to a hundred by the mid-19th century, and today there are about 170.[3]New teips could be founded when a largegarbroke off and claimed the title of a full-fledged teip.[5]

List of teips

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Below is a list of teips with the Chechentukkhumto which it may belong.

As well as a list of teips included in the ethno-territorial Ingush societiesShahar

See also

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References

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  1. ^Нохчийн-Оьрсийн словарь (Chechen-Russian Dictionary, A.G. Matsiyev, Moscow, 1961),also available online:Чеченско-Русский словарь: “схьаIенадала-такхадала”Archived2011-07-19 at theWayback Machine;andИнгушско-Русский словарь(online Ingush-Russian dictionary)Archived2012-08-17 atWebCite(in Russian)
  2. ^Traditional Social Organisation of Chechen peopleArchived2011-07-19 at theWayback Machine
  3. ^abcdefghAmjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.).The Chechens: A Handbook.p. 90.
  4. ^abcdeAmjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.).The Chechens: A Handbook.p. 94.
  5. ^abcAmjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.).The Chechens: A Handbook.p. 91.

Bibliography

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Russian sources

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