Village head

The village headman or village chief is a local government or tribal post. The village headman is the person appointed to administer an area that is often a single village.

The headman has several official duties in the village, and is sometimes seen as a mediator in disputes and a general “fixer” of village or individuals problems.

Examples of headmanship have been observed among the Zuni,^[1] !Kung, and Mehinacu,^[2] among others. Nearby tribal leaders recognized or appointed by the Chinese were known as tusi (tu-szu; Chinese: 土司; pinyin: tǔsī; Wade–Giles: t'u³-szu¹), although they could command larger areas than a single village.

See also

• Dibao (ti-pao) or "headman", a Qing-era village official

References

1. ↑ Ruth Benedict. Patterns of Culture, New American Library, 1934
2. ↑ Marvin Harris. Our Kind, Harper Perennial, 1989