Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a symbol of the clan's unity. When this ancestor is not human, it is referred to as an animalian totem. Clans can be most easily described as tribes or sub-groups of tribes. The word clan is derived from 'clann' meaning 'family' in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages. The word was taken into English about 1425 as a label for the tribal nature of Irish and Scottish Gaelic society. The Gaelic term for clan is fine . Clans preceded more centralized forms of community organization and government; they are located in every country. Members may identify with a coat of arms or other symbol to show they are an independent clan.
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Some articles on clan:
... In the context of Scottish clans, septs are families that followed another family's chief ... then comprise, and be part of, the chief's larger clan ... Today, sept lists are used by clan societies to recruit new members ...
... of Change" sequence tells of the struggle between Clan Korval, a Liaden Clan of much note, and the mysterious "Department of the Interior" ... the story up through the founding of Liad and of Clan Korval ...
... arrived on Ganghwa Island, they found the remaining clan of the Yi's barely surviving in wretched poverty ... Kim's manipulation of Cheoljong, in 1851, the clan married Cheoljong to Kim Mun-geun, daughter of a member of the clan, known posthumously as Queen Cheol-in ...
... Clan Donnachaidh (Scottish Gaelic Clann Dhonnchaidh), also known as Clan Robertson, is one of the oldest of all Scottish clans ...
... Arab Tribes Armenian clans Azerbaijan Nakhchivani Yeraz Baloch tribes Burundian clans Chechen clans Ngoche clan Central Asian clans Chinese clan, family name and consort clans Chinese (Hong Kong ...
Famous quotes containing the word clan:
“It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man’s interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“We cannot think of a legitimate argument why ... whites and blacks need be affected by the knowledge that an aggregate difference in measured intelligence is genetic instead of environmental.... Given a chance, each clan ... will encounter the world with confidence in its own worth and, most importantly, will be unconcerned about comparing its accomplishments line-by-line with those of any other clan. This is wise ethnocentricism.”
—Richard Herrnstein (1930–1994)