Making sense of Moroccan tribal sociology and history

The concept of tribe has long been contentious in North African history and anthropology and the idealised concept of segmentary lineage theory is inadequate. Segmentation, however, is a useful concept as it corresponds to tribal self image and cohesion although it undermines chronology. Nonetheless, tribal groupings can be of great antiquity, as patterns of tribal migration make clear, although it is only as a result of the colonial period that their toponymic realities have been permanently determined.