Teip is a Chechen and Ingushtribal organization or clan, self-identified through descent from a common ancestor or geographic location. It is a sub-unit of the tukkhum. There are about 150 Chechen teips. Teips played an important role in the socioeconomic life of the Chechen and Ingush peoples before and during the middle ages.
Teips being sub-units of tukkhums, members of the same teip are traditionally thought to descend from a common ancestor, and thus are considered distant blood relatives. Tribal names were often derived from this ancestral founder. As is also true of many other North Caucasian peoples, traditionally Chechen men were expected to know the names and places of origin of his ancestors on his father's side, going back many generations. Many women also memorized this information, and keener individuals can often recite their maternal ancestral line as well. The memorization of the information serves as a way to impute clan loyalty to younger generations. Among Peoples of the Caucasus, traditionally, large scale land disputes could sometimes be solved with the help of mutual knowledge of whose ancestors resided where and when. A teip's ancestral land was thus held as sacred, because of its close link to teip identity. It was typically marked by clan symbols, including the clan cemetery, tower, and sanctuary. Land being scarce in mountainous Chechnya, after the feudal system was overthrown, each teip claimed a definite area of land. Land boundaries were marked by stones with specific marks pointing to a local place of worship. While at first land was owned collectively, individual cultivation ultimately became the norm. In old Chechen tradition, women were allowed to own land. The vehement Chechen opposition to Soviet collectivization has been explained by the threat it posed to the traditional customs of land allotment.
Political function
Each teip had an elected council of elders, a court of justice, and its own set of customs. The civilian chief, referred to as the thamda or kh'alkhancha, chaired the council of elders. The baechcha, meanwhile, was the military leader.
Subdivisions
The teip has its own subdivisions, in order of their progressive nesting, the vaer, the gar, and the neqe. The neqe consists of households sharing the same family name, while the gar is a number of neqe units that together form a common lineage. The basic social unit, meanwhile, was the household, consisting of the extended family spanning three or four generations, referred to as the ts'a or the dözal, with married daughters usually living with in the household of their spouse. Brothers would share the same land and livestock.
Formation of new teips
The number of teips has been unstable in recent history. While there were 59 Chechen teips in the early 19th century, this swelled to a hundred by the mid-19th century, and today there are about 170. New teips could be founded when a large gar broke off and claimed the title of a full-fledged teip.
"Impure" teips
Vainakh traditional culture is known for its tolerance of foreigners. Historically, if non-Chechen minorities living in Chechen lands wanted to take part in the political processes of the Chechen nation and integrate into it, they would request admittance as an ethnic teip, or "impure teip". In the mid nineteenth century, there were some 20 teips that originated from foreignors, including Georgians, Russians, Turks, Kumyks, Avars, and Jews. During the Caucasian Wars new teips of Russian and Polish origin were formed. There are multiple teips claiming Georgian origin. Over time, teips of foreign origin were made into Chechens, adopting the Chechen language and value system. The origins of some teips are traceable through their names. Tolerance is described as an integral Vainakh ideal, and is manifested in the acceptance of teips. Traditionally, while an injury inflicted by a Muslim on a fellow Muslim would be thought to be atoned for on Judgement Day, it was held there would be no second chance if the victim was of a different faith. However, there are and have been some Chechens who blame historical misfortunes on assimilated foreigners.
