Functions of the clan among the Buryats (the end XIX-XX c.)

When the term obog is used, one can see two coexisting tendencies. On the one hand, this term marks the blood-related ties and thus can designate a clan as a broadened group of blood relatives consisting of several urugs (lineages) of several generations. The process of clans’ mixture led to formation of communities that received a name of territorial-administrative or simply administrative clans that had the name of the clan, which was the core of the given community. This was the second tendency that nevertheless did not eliminate the importance of consanguinity in the social life. The genealogical principle was still topical and coexisted with heterogeneous structure of a society. It legitimized the ritual and everyday life of the people and thus fulfilled the functions of social-regulative mechanism.