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Teip

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For the Norwegian motion picture production company, see Teip Ltd.
Meeting of men from the teip Gendargenoy

Teip (also taip, teyp; Vaynakh тайпа taypa Template:IPA-cau: family, kin, clan, tribe[1]) is a Chechen and Ingush tribal organization or clan, self-identified through descent from a common ancestor or geographic location. It is a sub-unit of the tukkhum. There are about 150 Chechen teips. Teips played and continue to play significant role in the socioeconomic life of the Chechen and Ingush peoples.

Traditional teip rules and features

Common teip rules and some features:[2]

  • The right of communal land tenure.
  • Common revenge for murder of a teip member or insulting of the members of a teip.
  • Unconditional exogamy.
  • 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 by male relatives.
  • The right of the adoption of outside people.
  • The transfer of property of departed to members of the teip.
  • The teip has a defined territory.
  • The teip constructed a teip tower or another building or natural monument convenient as a shelter, e.g. a fortress.
  • The teip had its own teip cemetery.
  • The teip hospitality.

List of teips

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

Identity, land and descent

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. Tribal names were often derived from this ancestral founder.[3] As is also true of many other North Caucasian peoples, traditionally Chechen men were expected to know the names and places of origin of his ancestors on his father's side, going back many generations.[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] Among Peoples 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 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 tradition, women were allowed to own land.[4] The vehement Chechen opposition to Soviet collectivization has been explained by the threat it posed to the traditional customs of land allotment.[4]

Political function

Each teip had an elected council of elders, a court of justice, and its own set of customs. The civilian chief, referred to as the thamda or kh'alkhancha, chaired the council of elders. The baechcha, meanwhile, was the military leader.[3]

Subdivisions

The teip has its own subdivisions, in order of their progressive nesting, the vaer, the gar, and the neqe. The neqe consists of households sharing the same family name, while the gar is a number of neqe units that together form a common lineage.[5] The basic social unit, meanwhile, was the household, consisting of the extended family spanning three or four generations, referred to as the ts'a or the dözal, 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

The number of teips has been unstable in recent history. While there were 59 Chechen 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 large gar broke off and claimed the title of a full-fledged teip.[5]

"Impure" teips

Vainakh traditional culture is known for its tolerance of foreigners.[6] Historically, if non-Chechen minorities living in Chechen lands wanted to take part in the political processes of the Chechen nation and integrate into it, they would request admittance as an ethnic teip, or "impure teip".[7] In the mid nineteenth century, there were some 20 teips that originated from foreignors, including Georgians, Russians, Turks, Kumyks, Avars, and Jews.[8] During the Caucasian Wars new teips of Russian and Polish origin were formed.[7] There are multiple teips claiming Georgian origin.[9] Over time, teips of foreign origin were made into Chechens, adopting the Chechen language and value system.[6] The origins of some teips are traceable through their names.[6]

Tolerance is described as an integral Vainakh ideal, and is manifested in the acceptance of teips. Traditionally, while an injury inflicted by a Muslim on a fellow Muslim would be thought to be atoned for on Judgement Day, it was held there would be no second chance if the victim was of a different faith. However, there are and have been some Chechens who blame historical misfortunes on assimilated foreigners.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Нохчийн-Оьрсийн словарь (Chechen-Russian Dictionary, A.G. Matsiyev, Moscow, 1961), also available online: Чеченско-Русский словарь: “схьаIенадала-такхадала” Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine; and Ингушско-Русский словарь (online Ingush-Russian dictionary) Archived 2012-08-17 at WebCite (in Russian)
  2. ^ Traditional Social Organisation of Chechen people Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Amjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.). The Chechens: A Handbook. p. 90.
  4. ^ a b c d e Amjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.). The Chechens: A Handbook. p. 94.
  5. ^ a b c Amjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.). The Chechens: A Handbook. p. 91.
  6. ^ a b c Amjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.). The Chechens: A Handbook. p. 91. Vainakh society was known for its tolerance of foreigners who took refuge or just elected to live in their land, allowing them to join the existing clan system or form clans of their own, adopting the local languages, customs and values in the process. The origin of some of these taips could be discerned from their names...
  7. ^ a b Usmanov, Lyoma. [1]. "Hence, they execute functions of a common ethnic connection, and not a division of ethnos. Many Chechen ‘taips’ have origins in foreign ethnic founders. Naturally, the first founders were the various Caucasian ethnos. During the Russian-Caucasian wars, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish groups joined the Chechen ethnos. There were also ‘taips’ from other European origins who joined the Chechen ethnos in earlier times. The process of formation of new ‘taips’ continues even at present."
  8. ^ Traditional social organisation of the Chechens (pdf)
  9. ^ WAKIZAKA, KEISUKE. "LIVING AS “NORTH CAUCASIANS” IN GEORGIA: IDENTITY AND INTEGRATION IN GEORGIA AMONG THE OSSETIAN AND THE CHECHEN-KIST COMMUNITIES." (2019). Page 78: "According to Kartlis Tskhovreba (History of Georgia) and works of the Georgian historian Leonti Mroveli in the 11th century, these relations began before Christ. In these sources, Vainakhs are called “Nachkhs”, “Ghlighvs”, “Dzurdzuks” and “Durdzuks”. At the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., Parnavaz, the king of Iberia, married a woman from a Vainakh tribe in order to get support from the Highlanders.209 They fought alongside the Georgian kings for centuries. Vainakhs loved Queen Tamar and named their daughters, bridges and other constructions after her. In this way, high-level interaction and fusion among Vainakhs, Georgians and other many highlander tribes existed in history.210 In the process of Vainakhs’ settlement in Georgia, they were assimilated into Georgian society. In fact, there are tribes who insist that their origins are based on Chechnya and Ingushetia among Tushs, Khevsurs, Pshavs and Georgians in Kakheti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti. Some tribes in Chechnya and Ingushetia . that they are Georgian-origin and that they emigrated to Chechnya and Ingushetia afterward..."
  10. ^ Amjad Jaimoukha. Nicholas Awde (ed.). The Chechens: A Handbook. p. 144. Tolerance is an integral part of the Vainakh ethos. There had never been traditions of religious or racial discrimination and persecution in Chechen history. According to popular belief, an injury inflicted on a fellow Muslim could be atoned for on Judgement Day, since all Muslims would meet then. However, no such second chance would be available if the injured person were of a different faith—conscience niceties taken to an extreme... some taips can still trace their origin to foreign nationalities. Though rare, there had been instances in which some of the ills that had befallen the nation were imputed by 'pure' Chechens to 'foreign' elements in society....
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