"Blood Feuds": Cross-Cultural Variations in Kin Group Vengeance

Abstract

Despite the considerable research that has been carried out on cross-cultural pat terns of political conflict, little empirical attention has been devoted to the study of blood feuds. In this study, coding categories were developed to measure the legitimacy of kin group vengeance, self-redress, and formal adjudication mechanisms among societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (Murdock and White 1969). The empirical results strongly suggest that blood feuds occur within the context of marriage bargains and that they are most characteristic of societies studied prior to World WarI. When historical time penod and other potential external influences were considered, feuding was found to be associated primarily with premarital chastity concerns and mode of marriage. Individual self-redress and formal adjudication, however, depend on characteristics of the political economy-economic resource base, stratification, diverging devolution, and hospitable climate. It is suggested here that future analyses of political conflict should distinguish feuds from other forms and take into account the historical effects of Western incursions on the internal politics of traditional communities.