''Sippe'' is
German for "
clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
,
kindred,
extended family" (
Frisian ''Sibbe'', Norse ''Sifjar'').
It continues a
Proto-Germanic term ''*sebjō'', which referred to a
band or
confederation bound by a treaty or
oath, not primarily restricted to blood relations. The original character of ''sibb'' as a peace treaty is visible in Old English, e.g. in ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
'' (v. 1858):
:''hafast þû gefêred, þæt þâm folcum sceal,
:''Geáta leódum ond Gâr-Denum''
:''sib gemæne ond sacu restan.''
The ''Sippe'' came to be a
cognatic
Cognatic kinship is a mode of descent calculated from an ancestor counted through any combination of male and female links, or a system of bilateral kinship where relations are traced through both a father and mother. Such relatives may be known ...
, extended family unit, exactly analogous to the Scottish/Irish
sept.
Most of the information left about the nature and role of the ''Sippe'' is found in records left by the
Lombards,
Alamanni
The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes
*
*
*
on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...
, and
Bavarians
Bavarians ( Bavarian: ''Boarn'', Standard German: ''Baiern'') are an ethnographic group of Germans of the Bavaria region, a state within Germany. The group's dialect or speech is known as the Bavarian language, native to Altbayern ("Old Bava ...
. One of the functions of the Sippe was regulating use of forests. The average ''Sippe'' likely contained no more than 50 families. The ''Sippe'' seems to have been absorbed into the monogamous family later on; P.D. King asserts that this was already the case among the
Visigoths during the time of the
Visigothic Kingdom.
[P.D. King, ''Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom'', Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 3rd ser. 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), 233.]
See also
*
Band (anthropology)
A band society, sometimes called a camp, or in older usage, a horde, is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family or clan. The general consensus of modern anthropology ...
*
Consanguinity
*
Germanic tribes
*
Kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
*
List of Germanic peoples
*
Mund (in law)
*
Norse clans
The Scandinavian clan or ''ætt/ätt'' (pronounced in Old Norse) was a social group based on common descent, equivalent to a clan.
History
In the absence of a police force, the clan was the primary force of security in Norse society, as the cl ...
*
Sibling
*
Sif, a Norse goddess thought to personify the concept
*
Sippenhaft
Footnotes
{{Authority control
Early Germanic law
Family in early Germanic culture
Lists of ancient Indo-European peoples and tribes
Clans