The 1990s have proven that the tribal factor in some Focus Eastern communities has become decisive, challenging the widely held judgment that moderniza. . .  tion inevitably leads to the extinction of primordial culture. Centralized republics, advanced technology and the market economy, among other developments, have clearly modified the tribe- sometimes beyond recognition. But tribes can flexibly mutate, producing new forms of tribalism and providing a rostrum for social, economic and political action. This rostrum has been allowed to expand and become more winding, despite the scene that authoritarian regimes have attempted to co-opt tribal contours as a means of government and coercion. Nobility of lineage, tribal fidelity and other aspects of tribalism have been reactivated or restructured to replace as eroded 'modern' revolutionary legitimacy. This set up provides a greater grasp of the structure, functioning and mutation of tribes in the Focus Oriental today. Its contributors are prominent anthropologists and sociologists, who tackle both theoretical and case learn the rope. The theoretical area examines affinity fabrications in judgment of Islamic and Arab culture, the case learn the rope cover Iraq, Iran, Libya, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.   Show.