Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
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Page 169
followers (p. 257). Success depends partly on conformityo accepted rules of conduct such as generosity and piety. But it will also depend on the number of established relationships he already has - mainly agnatic relationships. In other words, both for those in the village who wish to be leaders and equally for those who wish to be followers, the cultural emphasis on agnation provides one of the main grounds for recruitment ofgroups for mutual protection and the enhancement of prestige. But the villages also contain some who have no wish to belong to lineages, and some who have no lineage to belong to. Between them, these cover perhaps half the population of Elbashï and rather less than half that of Sakaltutan.
Fission
No effective lineage numbered as much as twenty households most of them very much less - and none had a genealogical depth of more than three generations above the senior living generation; five in all. Both the reason for this effective limit, and the way in which fission actually takes place, are implicit in the description I have just given.
The lineage has no clear-cut membership except at times of active hostility. It lacks any formal criterion of membership and any symbol of unity except its name. Even when a lineage has a leader he holds no formal position. When there are no active quarrels the lineage persists because members seek each others' company, meet together in guest rooms, help each other in various ways and publicly acknowledge their agnatic ties. Readiness to side actively with each other can only be observed when the need actually arises. Ties may therefore loosen slowly, with the growth of households and changes in the relation between them, without any sharp break being obvious unless and until the threat of danger makes it clear who is loyal to whom.
The lack of formal membership leaves only the vaguer criterion of relative friendliness. But the number of intimate ties one household can maintain, and the size of the group which can meet regularly for social intercourse, is limited. Above, say, a dozen households the maintenance of a loyalty which depends on personal intimacy becomes difficult. Larger groups break up
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