To a modern western reader, the terms clan and tribe have either been dropped entirely from their modern lexicon or they vaguely mean the same thing as the word family. Yet what did it mean to our ancestors the ancient Proto Indo-Europeans? Let’s explore these powerful concepts.
The importance of the following concepts to the Proto Indo-Europeans cannot be overstated, the concepts of blood-ties and patrilineal power structures is integral to the way of life of a people whose cultural embodiment was the wars they waged to spread their influence. There is no Proto Indo-European without their patriarchy. The two concepts are inseperable, and their lessons are invaluable, especially to the modern reader that has lost their way.
Some daughter languages of the Proto Indo-Europeans have better preserved concepts than others, generally I try to assemble a larger group of languages to show their common origin. To some degree the Latins, Greeks, and especially the Iranians have preserved these concepts in their ancient texts, showing their ever evolving ways and connections to a shared ancient past.
The most basic structure of the Proto Indo-European society stems from the seed of the family. The family is the ultimate structure upon which every other structure stretches out, and from which their society was built upon. The Greeks called their homes démos, the Latins called it the domus, it is the word for which we derive domicile, or the home, the nexus of the family. Each home was run by a dominus, or the father of the house, the leader of the family, and so much more. He was the final judge of all authority within the house, and from which the family derived its origin and power. Without a father, there was no home.
Above the structure of the family was the clan. The clan can be thought of as a larger collection of families whose origin stems from one man. All the grandchildren born to the males descendants of the clans progenitor were and still are of the same clan. This concept has stayed alive in Scotland and Ireland, though it has faded greatly or is missing entirely from other western nations. The word clan however has its origins in several celtic words which shares the idea of something found elsewhere in empires with a deeper written history. The Greeks called it phrḗtrē, the Latins phrātriā, it is the word from which we derive fraternity, or brotherhood. These men may have had separate fathers and mothers, but their blood was bonded forever. They share a common progenitor, and they knew quite well the connection to their extended family.
Above the clan was the tribe, which is a word whose origin belongs solely to the Latins in this case, and has another word which shares a common origin among all Proto Indo-Europeans. Tribe comes from tribus, the three divisions made by Romulus for the given people who inhabited his newly formed Monarchy. The Greeks however called it phûlon, from which the Latins derived the phylum. The general idea expressed by the concept of tribe is that of a collection of clans that share a common origin, that which may have later been called a race, but has far lost its meaning now.
At each level of family, clan, and tribe, there was a given leader, an elder which lead those under him. The concept of a dominus will sound familiar to those who are drenched in their liturgy, but it means the leader of a house, the protector of a home, the father of a family. This concept has a direct synonym which had already began to fade into its ancient past in Rome, the Pater familias, the father or leader of the family. For the Proto Indo-Europeans the concept of the father and leader seems to overlap so greatly as to become one word!
The ancient Iranians preserved these concepts well, the dmāna paiti was the equivalent of the pater familias. They also had terms for the leaders of the clan and tribe being the vis paiti and zantu paiti respectively. However, the Iranians had a concept either above and beyond that of tribe which the Greeks and Latins lacked, or had a shared concept that the Greeks and Latins have lost to time. The concept of the dahyu paiti, or the leader of a people, the sovereign above the tribes, the monarch. This final leader was a man who ruled over several distinct peoples, which comes to all those great warriors who expand their domain to encompass the lands which originally belonged to others. These concepts would be passed down into middle Iranian where they would become mānbed, visbed, zandbed, and dehbed respectively. Remember that Iranians are still in some sense another branch to your ancient ancestry, as westerners have begun to see anything outside of Europe as other-than.
At every level of the Proto Indo-European society there was a leader, a father of a family, a clan, a tribe, or a country, and this structure was reinforned from top to bottom, as well as reverberated from the bottom to the top. No matter where the Proto Indo-Europeans traveled on their horses, be it steppe, highlands, river valleys, or the most remote reaches of desert basins, they created order by being ordered. You may think of these people as steppe barbarians, but their barbarity could not be further from the truth, because these men and women were able to begin anew wherever they conquered.
I threw around a word several times, progenitor, it’s a powerful word which itself deserves some inspection. It shares an origin with the Greek génos and Latin genus, the words which share the same root for genes, genetics, genesis, which all ultimatley mean the birth or beginning of something. A progenitor is therefor the creator of this birth, the first amongst many, the origin point of a people for which a certain Pervert covered in Bronze spoke of during a powerful oration I once heard while relaxing on the beach. Every son of the proto Indo-Europeans bears the mark of their conquering progenitor, be it R1a, R1b, or one of the various other haplogroups spread by their people in their various invasions. Even the daughters bring with themselves the mitochondrial haplogroups of the pre-Aryan invasions of Eurasia such as H, U, M, and N.
There is in your history a single person for which all these bloodlines can be tied to, one man that stretches far back into our ancient past and has been lost to time. He is our progenitor, the man responsible for all of our lives thousands of years after his own. His face, his name, his origin all forgotten to time, but his descendants all connected by a single unity.
The word clan and tribe has lost its meaning, and even the word family has begun to be pulled apart by the modern world. You know now of its importance, the reason why these structures exist and the power which they can and have produced. Without the family, without the clan, without the tribe, no great empire would have ever been born.
You are able to leave your mark on history for all time, do not let forget where you come from, and do not let those who come from you forget who you were. Great renown awaits you, but only if you’re either willing to take it, or create it. Whichever path you choose, remember that your family and legacy rests solely on your shoulders. As always brothers, remember that I am here with you in the Abyss.