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How is it different from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_self-government_in_India#... ??

which has been practised from way before 7th century ?

[ The Tone of the question is curiosity and not a flame-bait please]

I was wondering about similarities to the old "ting" in Scandinavia, which regulated clan feuds, etc.

Afaik, some kind of laws are common in clan societies. E.g. blood price, mentioned in the wikipedia article, was common in historical clan societies. (Famously, in Sweden if you killed someone from "Småland" in "Götaland", it was free. :-) )

How different is Xeer?

> I was wondering about similarities to the old "ting" in Scandinavia, which regulated clan feuds, etc.

Is this related to the "farthings" of the Icelandic Commonwealth?

Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Commonwealth#Court_sy...

See the "Althing" in that article. It varied over time, later the laws got written down. And, as the article noted, on Iceland people always were too busy surviving to do as much of the usual clan violence.

There are quite a few place names in Sweden with "ting" in them, e.g. "Tingvalla". (I assume it is similar in the other Scandinavian countries.)

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