and Cultural Anthropology Commons

Abstract: Th is article examines the resurgence of tribalism as a sociological com-ponent of contemporary Qatari society. Utilising an ethnographic, mixed-methods design, the article begins with a survey of the substantial scholarship concerning tribes in Arabia. Th at scholarship provides ideas and understandings that only partially explain the vitality of contemporary tribalism. Th e article then demon-strates tribalism’s ongoing social importance by analysing data from a quantitative survey of 800 Qatari citizens. Th e article concludes with the ethnographically situ-ated contention that tribalism functions as a mechanism for asserting social power in the contemporary Qatari state, and is therefore an emblematic component of Qatari citizenship