Paramount chief

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A paramount chief is the English-language designation for a King/Queen or the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple chiefdoms or the rulers of exceptionally powerful chiefdoms that have subordinated others. Paramount chiefs were identified by English-speakers as existing in Native American confederacies and regional chiefdoms, such as the Powhatan Confederacy and Piscataway Native Americans encountered by European colonists in the Chesapeake Bay region of North America.

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During the Victorian era, paramount chief was a formal title created by British colonial administrators in the British Empire and applied in Britain's colonies in Asia and Africa. They used it as a substitute for the word "king" to ensure that only the British monarch held that title. [1] Since the title "chief" was already used in terms of district and town administrators, the addition of "paramount" was made so as to distinguish between the ruling monarch and the local aristocracy. [1]

Africa

Eastern African paramount chieftainships and titles

West African paramount chieftains and their countries

Southern African paramount chieftainships and titles

The Great Mongol Khan: Genghis Khan YuanEmperorAlbumGenghisPortrait.jpg
The Great Mongol Khan: Genghis Khan
Manchu Tribal Chief Nurhaci Qing Yi Ming  <<Qing Tai Zu Tian Ming Huang Di Zhao Fu Xiang >> .jpg
Manchu Tribal Chief Nurhaci

In Asia

East Asia paramount chieftainships and titles

Khan, alternately spelled lowercase as khan [2] and sometimes spelled as Han, Xan, Ke-Han, Turkic: khān, [2] [3] Mongolian : qāān, [3] Chinese: 可汗 or 汗, kehan or han) is an originally Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, first used by medieval Turko-Mongol nomadic tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is first seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation [4] for their chief between 283 and 289 [5] and was used as a state title by the Rouran confederation. [6] It was subsequently adopted by the Göktürks before Turkic peoples and the Mongols brought it to the rest of Asia. In the middle of the sixth century it was known as "Kagan – King of the Turks" to the Persians. [4]

It now has many equivalent meanings such as commander, leader, or ruler. The most famous khan was the Great Khan of Mongols: Genghis Khan. Another famous Manchu khan was Nurhachi.

Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

The current Huguan Siou. Penampang Sabah Joseph-Pairin-Kitingan-02.jpg
The current Huguan Siou.

Huguan Siou is the paramount leader for the Kadazandusun Murut indigenous community in Sabah. The current and the second Huguan Siou is Joseph Pairin Kitingan. The office is near sacred and can be left vacant if no one is deemed worthy to hold the title. [7]

In Oceania

Samoan paramount chief Mata'afa Iosefo (1832-1912) Samoan Paramount chief Mataafa Iosefa, 1896.jpg
Samoan paramount chief Mata'afa Iosefo (1832–1912)

New Zealand

Cook Islands

Fiji

Polynesia

See also

Sources and references

Related Research Articles

Khan is a historic Turkic and Mongolic title originating among nomadic tribes in the Central and Eastern Eurasian Steppe to refer to a king. It first appears among the Rouran and then the Göktürks as a variant of khagan and implied a subordinate ruler. In the Seljük Empire, it was the highest noble title, ranking above malik (king) and emir (prince). In the Mongol Empire it signified the ruler of a horde (ulus), while the ruler of all the Mongols was the khagan or great khan. It is a title commonly used to signify the head of a Pashtun tribe or clan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotuma</span> Island on Pacific Ocean

Rotuma is a self-governing heptarchy, generally designated a dependency of Fiji. Rotuma commonly referred to Rotuma Island, the only permanently inhabited and by far the largest of all the islands in the Rotuma Group. Officially, the Rotuma Act declares that Rotuma consists of Rotuma Island as well as its neighbouring islands, rocks, and reefs across the entire Rotuma Group. The dependency is situated around 500 km west of the French islands of Wallis and Futuna and a similar distance north of the Fijian mainland. Its capital is Ahau, a hamlet consisting of a number of colonial-era buildings. Rotuma exists as a dependency of Fiji but itself contains its own socioreligious pene-enclave known traditionally as Faguta where the chiefs and their villages adhere to the practices of worship, festival dates, and French-based writing system of the Marists, based at Sumi.

The aliʻi were the traditional nobility of the Hawaiian islands. They were part of a hereditary line of rulers, the noho aliʻi.

A mataiapo or mata'iapo is a hereditary chiefly title in the Cook Islands. The head of a sub-tribe, subject to the ariki as far as the whole tribe is concerned and owing him traditional allegiance, but otherwise largely independent as head of his own family group and owning land in his own right.

<i>Rapa-Nui</i> (film) 1994 American film directed by Kevin Reynolds

Rapa-Nui is a 1994 American historical action-adventure film directed by Kevin Reynolds and co-produced by Kevin Costner, who starred in Reynolds's previous film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). The plot is based on Rapa Nui legends of Easter Island, Chile, in particular the race for the sooty tern's egg in the Birdman Cult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mpondo people</span> Southern African ethnic group

The Mpondo-People, or simply batter known as Ama-Mpondo, is a kingdom in what is now Known as the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It was established in March 1224. The Ama-Mpondo-Nation was first ruled by its founder who was King Mpondo ka-Njanya who lived around [born in 1204 and died in 1280] and later the 'Ama-Nyawuza' clan (a royal clan of the Ama-Mpondo-nation), by nationality referred to themselves as 'Ama-Mpondo'. They are related to other Aba-Mbo-People's and chiefdoms in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadazan-Dusun</span> Ethnic-group from Sabah, Malaysia

Kadazandusun are the largest ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia, an amalgamation of the closely related indigenous Kadazan and Dusun peoples. "Kadazandusun" is an umbrella term that encompasses both the Kadazan and Dusun peoples. They are also known as Mamasok Sabah, meaning "indigenous people of Sabah". Kadazandusun tradition holds that they are the descendants of Nunuk Ragang. Kadazandusun is recognised as an indigenous nation of Borneo with documented heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2004. Kadazandusuns are part of the bumiputera in Malaysia having been endowed with rights concerning land, rivers, education and maintaining their own customary laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal chief</span> Leader of a tribal society or chiefdom

A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a leader of a tribal society or of a chiefdom.

The fakpure was the secular ruler of Rotuma in the pre-European contact times. It was one of three chiefly roles with direct influence across the island of Rotuma, the other two being the mua and the sau. Traditionally the most senior political authority on the island, the fakpure was one of the gagaj ‘es itu’u of the districts of Rotuma, and the convener of the island’s Council of Chiefs. After being elected as the district chief through the traditional processes, the position of fakpure was bestowed on the most senior of these district chiefs, usually the chief whose district had won the most recent war, who also received the privilege of being the first served in the politically charged kava ceremony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti</span> Māori iwi in New Zealand

Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti is a Māori iwi (tribe) on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island. Its rohe covers the area from Tawhiti-a-Paoa Tokomaru Bay to Te Toka-a-Taiau Gisborne on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Ariki</span>

The House of Ariki is a parliamentary body in the Cook Islands. It is composed of Cook Islands high chiefs (ariki), appointed by the King's Representative. While it functions in a similar way to the House of Lords and the Senate of Canada, the country's parliament is officially unicameral. There are up to twenty-four members, representing different islands of the Cooks.

An ariki, ꞌariki, aliki, ali‘i, ari'i, Rotuma) aiki or hakaiki, akariki or ‘eiki (Tonga) is or was a member of a hereditary chiefly or noble rank in Polynesia.

A non-sovereign monarchy, subnational monarchy or constituent monarchy is one in which the head of the monarchical polity, and the polity itself, are subject to a temporal authority higher than their own. The constituent states of the German Empire or the princely states of the Indian Empire during British rule provide historical examples; while the Zulu king, whose power derives from the Constitution of South Africa, is a contemporary one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makea Pori Ariki</span> High Chief of Te Au O Tonga

Makea Pori Ariki was a sovereign of the Cook Islands. He was the ariki of the Makea Nui dynasty, one of the three chiefdoms of the Te Au O Tonga tribe on the island of Rarotonga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madzikane</span> King of the AmaBhaca Nation

King Madzikane was the founder and a King of the amaBhaca nation. He was the son of the Zelemu King Khalimeshe kaWabana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramount rulers in early Philippine history</span> Aspect of Philippine history

The term Paramount Ruler, or sometimes Paramount Datu, is a term used by historians to describe the highest ranking political authorities in the largest lowland polities or inter-polity alliance groups in early Philippine history, most notably those in Maynila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, and Sulu.

References

  1. 1 2 Government Documents. Great Britain. Foreign Office. Correspondence with Foreign Courts Regarding Execution of Treaties Contracted. London, 1821. 110pp
  2. 1 2 "khan". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster . Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  3. 1 2 "khan". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Bartleby.com. Archived from the original on 2007-08-19. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  4. 1 2 Henning, W. B., 'A Farewell to the Khagan of the Aq-Aqataran',"Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African studies – University of London", Vol 14, No 3, p501–522. ,
  5. Zhou 1985, p. 3–6
  6. René Grousset (1988). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. p.  585. ISBN   0-8135-1304-9.
  7. "The Huguan Siou Office". Kadazandusun Cultural Association. Retrieved 26 May 2020.