After a long theoretical debate, anthropology seems to have replaced the idea of “tribe” by the concept of “ethnicity”. This project hopes to question the persistent use of tribal idioms and its contemporary articulations. I propose to develop ethnographic research that might enable a reintroduction of the “tribe” as a valid tool in anthropological practice, if currently reconfigured by the presence of concepts such as globalization or, in fact, the new ethnicities that currently produced. My previous experience with Mauritania’s arabophone social contexts should constitute a privileged object of reflection, in a project that however whishes to establish more comprehensive examples across the northwestern African region. How do the present challenges set by the reinforcement of state policies, of globalization (at different levels), or of the renewed debates consecrated within Islamic spheres define the contemporary use of the tribal idioms? Is the “ethnic” reading currently validated by most anthropological literature effective in addressing such problems?
