ČERNÝ, Karel; TUREČEK, Břetislav et al. Význam kmenové společnosti v 21. století
1st ed. Prague: Metropolitan University Prague Press, 2015. ISBN 978-80-87956-35-9
The relation between tribe and state in the contemporary Middle East is the main topic of this collective monography. The concept of this book is interdisciplinary; it thus offers many different points of view which focus, one way or the other, on tribes and tribalism in the Middle East. These points of view do not repudiate each other but aptly reinforce themselves. Whereas years of anthropological field work form the basis of research for some contributors (Richard Tapper, Clinton Bailey), other authors focus on historical research and Arab studies reinforced by the knowledge of Oriental languages and the study of written sources (Luboš Kropáček). Others still focus on political science, more specifically on the political processes and protagonists, always keeping in mind their relation to the wider context and to the context of tribalism (Anna Vidén, Lucie Jírů, Daud Khattak).
The interdisciplinary research project presented in this monography follows the same pattern of chapters found in the already seminal work of Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner (eds.) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East (1990), and is, to a degree, inspired by it. The more general introductory chapters therefore aim to introduce the possible definitions of tribes and tribal organisations in Middle-Eastern societies. The second part of the monography consists of specific case studies.
