It is not possible to understand the role of collective decision making in the Mari evidence without taking into account the basic structures of social and political life that are displayed in the archives. Moreover, although group decision making is specially associated with the town, it finds some expression at every level of the ancient political organization displayed at Mari. I have divided these basic structures into two main categories and set out to explore these in Chapters 2 and 3, before reaching the towns in Chapter 4.

During the time of the Mari archives, the tribal Binu Yamina and Binu Simʾal dominated the region of Mari, as well as much of the surrounding area. I began with the tribal world of Zimri-Lim because a large proportion of the kingdom's population identified itself in tribal terms, ultimately including Zimri-Lim himself. For those with tribal identities, tribe took precedence over both towns and the larger polities called mātums (“lands”). Perhaps the large states such as Babylon, Yamḫad, and Ešnunna dominated regional politics, but their identities followed the fortunes of their rulers, growing and shrinking with the latest victory or defeat. Towns offered a basis for family identity that could go back generations, but families could always move. Tribal identities, on the contrary, accompanied people across every geographical and social boundary. Philip Carl Salzman relates a story about how his Baluchi friends reacted with stunned silence to his admission that North American society was not based on lineages.