"Problemi dell'urbanizzazione in Sudan: le associazioni volontarie"

A classical topic of anthropology is the study of social structure and social organization in ' tribal society '. But ' tribal society ' as isolated and closed system only exists as an artificious theoretical issue. The co-processes of urbanization, industrialization and occidentalization occurring in varied and often contradictory forms in the societies traditionally studied by anthropologists require researchers to adopt corresponding methodological proceedings in order to analyze a social situation more complex than the one postulated in the past for ' tribal societies '. The setting of social groups, coalitions, and voluntary associations arising in the urban context suggests a re-thinking, of which the article shows a few examples, about the structure of the social relationships under the perspective of the individual in its becoming ' persona ' and in its interaction with economical, political, religious, and social systems.