Yet their existence is clearly recognised in the villages. They are in this area called kabile , a word of Arabic origin, which in Istanbul means tribe. One man in Elbashï, urging me to write letters to the village, said I could write to each of the five kabile , and the letters could be read out in the guest rooms. Here kabile corresponded rather to the village quarters than to the actual lineage, which numbered more than five. But he thought in terms of agnatic groups.
Moreover, each lineage has its own name. These are almost always based on the name or nickname of a founding ancestor, for example, Köse Aliler (the Bald Alis), Hamuslilar (those from Damascus), Sarilar (the Blondes), Shehusha§ï (offspring of the Sheyh). Before I935, these names were apparently one recognised way of distinguishing people in the villages. In 1935, everyone was compelled by law to adopt a surname of the normal European type based on linguistically pure Turkish roots. The new names were in most cases quite independent and unlike existing village names, and most people seem to have been allocated names from an official list. Certainly the villages are now full of Truebloods, Trueturks, Whitesouls, Brights, Strongs, Sturdies, Lions and so forth (Özkan, Özturk, Akcan, Aydïn, Gürbüz, Aslan).
Neither the old lineage names nor the modern names are universally used. Sometimes women and children do not know even their own official surnames, and only those responsible for official village business will know all the village surnames. I used official surnames to keep my records for the same reason that officials do so - convenience of identification. In most cases the older names are known and still used, but in a few they were disputed, or simply not known. First names and current nicknames normally suffice for the villagers' own purposes.
I made several attempts to collect complete lists of the traditional lineage names in both villages, but in spite of prompting, the lists never came out the same, because people always disagreed about the details. Some names, they said, were not fully fledged kabile , but only branches (shübe ), or arms (kol ) of other lineages, and in a few cases they even differed on which lineage certain village households belonged to. In all, I re