chieftain

A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a political leader of a social group commonly described as a tribe, band, or confederation of tribes. Chiefs’ authority varies widely by society and context, and in many cases depends on consensus and customary legitimacy rather than coercive power. In anthropology, terms such as tribe, chief, and chiefdom have been used in comparative models of sociopolitical organization, but the analytic use of tribe has also been widely criticized as imprecise and historically burdened. In some contemporary states, forms of chiefly authority are formally recognized or regulated by constitutions and statutes.