Social and economic organisation of the Rowanduz Kurds
The following account is based upon a five weeks field survey carried out during the summer of 1938. It was intended to follow this up with an intensive study of one locality over a period of twelve months. Political developments in Europe made this project impracticable at the time and the scheme has now been abandoned.
For the facilities afforded me in Iraq I am particularly indebted to Mr. C. J. Edmonds, Adviser to the Iraq Government, Captain. Vyvyan Holt, Oriental Secretary at the British Embassy Baghdad, and His Excellency Ahmed Beg i Taufiq Beg, Mutasarrif of Erbil, in whose province this research was carried out.
The justification for publishing the somewhat superficial data contained in this monograph lies in the absence of any strictly comparable material elsewhere. The general form of Kurdish social organisation as here described is probably fairly typical of that of a large number of Mohammedan peoples scattered throughout the mountainous areas of western Asia Concerning such peoples there is at present available very little ethnographic material of any kind and the postulate that the Kurdish form of society is typical is put forward as an hypothesis open to correction in the light of further study. Contents
Chapter 1 Definition of the problem / 1
Introduction - Note on Kurdish names - The Field of Investigation - Method of Analysis – The External Administration.
Chapter 2 Social organisation / 13
Political Structure - Definition of Units - Inheritance of Land Tenure - The Clan Agha - The Tribal Agha - Kinship Structure - Marriage of Commoners - Marriage of Aghas - Comparison with observations made by Hay - Points of Analysis calling for further study - Areas other than the Balik - The nomads.
Chapter 3 Economic organisation / 28
The Guest House - The Expenditure of the Agha - Economic balance of the village community - effects of an increase in tobacco cultivation - Economic relations within the village - Crafts - Traders - Tobacco marketing - Marriage - Death - The mulla.
Chapter 4 Social and economic aspects of Kurdish techniques / 47
The Relevance of technology in a social study - Land scarcity, house construction and kinship - Ploughing - Threshing - Land Utilisation - Rice - The Mill - Weaving.
Chapter 5 Factors of minor economic significance. / 55
1) Warfare 2) Religion
Warfare - The Feud - Religious Organisation - The Mulla - The Mosque
Chapter 6 Conclusion / 61
Limitations of Foregoing Material - Positive Contribution
Appendix, Table of kinship terms / 63
Technical diagrams
A. Kurdish Loom / 65
B. Kurdish Mill / 69
Maps
1. Erbil liwa / 71
2. Rowanduz district / 72
3. Walash Village / 73
Photographs / 74 CHAPTER 1
Introductory
The following account is based upon a five weeks field survey carried out during the summer of 1938. It was intended to follow this up with an intensive study of one locality over a period of twelve months. Political developments in Europe made this project impracticable at the time and the scheme has now been abandoned.
For the facilities afforded me in Iraq I am particularly indebted to Mr. C. J. Edmonds, Adviser to the Iraq Government, Captain. Vyvyan Holt, Oriental Secretary at the British Embassy Baghdad, and His Excellency Ahmed Beg i Taufiq Beg, Mutasarrif of Erbil, in whose province this research was carried out.
The justification for publishing the somewhat superficial data contained in this monograph lies in the absence of any strictly comparable material elsewhere. The general form of Kurdish social organisation as here described is probably fairly typical of that of a large number of Mohammedan peoples scattered throughout the mountainous areas of western Asia Concerning such peoples there is at present available very little ethnographic material of any kind and the postulate that the Kurdish form of society is typical is put forward as an hypothesis open to correction in the light of further study.
Of more immediate relevance is the close correlation that undoubtedly exists between Kurdish social forms and those of Arabia in general. This fact is of interest since linguistically the Kurds are of "aryan" rather than "semitic" stock. Concerning the "manners and customs" of various Bedouin and Semitic groups there is of course an enormous mass of literature available, some of it of the highest scientific quality, but the emphasis in every case has been to make an historical record of ethnographic fact rather than to study any particular group as a society in functioning existence at the present time. The work of Jaussen, Musil, Lane, Drower and Murray to name but a few, though admirably detailed, is by modern standards somewhat lifeless, since it describes the pattern of various cultural norms without, as a rule, showing their social significance or demonstrating the fundamental interrelationship between them. Monographs on social anthropology, no. 3
Social and economic organisation of the Rowanduz Kurds
by
E. R. Leach
Published for The London School of Economics and Political Science
by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd.,
12 Bedford Square
London, W.C.1.
1940
Made and Printed by the Replika Process in Great Britain by
Percy Lund, Humphries & CO. Ltd.
London and Bradford | 
