Tribal vs. Non-tribal

topic posted Sat, June 23, 2007 - 9:16 AM by  offlineWanderingangel
I often ask myself the questions; What is a tribe? What makes things tribal? What are tribal behaviors as opposed to non-tribal? Does anyone else ask themselves these things? Sometimes asking myself some basic questions can be the only reference book available.
posted by:
Wanderingangel
San Diego
  • The "Neo-tribal" tag seems to attach itself mostly to ravers, which has little to do with tribalism, I am sad to report.

    A "tribe" is a small group of people who are closely associated, mostly blood kin, and generally who live in a hunter-gatherer economy, meaning that they are so close to nature that they are part of it.

    So the way to emulate this, is first include as many of your blood relations in your tribe as you feel comfortable. :)
    Get together with this small group and develop bonds. Get out in nature together. I think that would get you on the path toward neo-tribalism.
  • i relate the word tribe to a circular and colective group of people, that colaborate with each other.
    so if you are asking is this a real ciber-tribe, then the answar is yes.
    • well i generally think of tribal as being at it's core tied to familial and cultural ties as opposed to arbitrary geographic delineations, much in the way southwest asia was carved into neat little (snicker) portions by the british french and americans post wwi. that labeling and dividing has much to do with unrest in the area now, the underlying culture in these places was richly tribal and the concept of the nation-state divides were slow to find purchase (still are).
  • My understanding of 'neo-tribalism' as an emerging academic field, is that it is the theory that most of our social instincts evolved in the setting of small tribes, and that our social instincts are thus best suited to that setting. In a setting like that, everyone in the tribe knows everyone else, and inappropriate behavior is nipped in the bud before it ever gets out of hand. My Muskogee ancestors did not have a word for 'crime'; they viewed anti-social behavior as an illness, and the cure was to bring the afflicted before the tribe so they could be reminded that life was a circle and that anything they did to other members of the tribe would ultimately affect them too. Even in small town America, the rich boss who layed off workers might have to face them in church on Sunday. Many of our social ills today result from applying our old instincts to a world where we will never meet most of the people who are affected by our actions.
  • I think we could all get into a great many discussions as to what is and isn't considered tribal but I feel that one common thread would be a group of individuals that depend on each other for survival and support. The details are left up to the tribe.
    If you work all day it would be assumed that the work you're doing is benefiting the tribe and not some corporation. Give support. Get support.
    I don't feel like you can say what tribal behaviors are except in a very general sense. You look out for your people and they look out for you.
  • one perspective:

    "The early Germanic peoples had no concept of race,
    and not well into the Viking period* (under strong
    pressure from kings who wished to impose Continental
    style feudal monarchies) did the idea of a "nation"
    have much meaning. During the migrations there was
    some sense of what it meant to be a tribe or a people,
    though even this was variable as subgroups split off
    and formed new alliances. A "people" was effectively
    comprised of those who marched together as a migratory
    army, created not by common descent but by common
    interests.
    What was and continued to be important was the kin
    group - the clan and the extended family. In ancient
    times, however, the modern model of he nuclear family
    would haveb een barely comprehensible. The most
    successful unit for survival was a large household,
    usually including a multigenerational family as well
    as thralls, freedmen, houseguests (who might stay for
    a winter or more), and depending on the status and
    interests of the master of the house, warriors. This
    group worked together, and together performed
    ceremonies that honoured and propitiated the local
    land spirits and family ancestors. The clan, or
    kindred ('kuni' in Gothic), was a "community of
    descent," a looser grouping of families descended from
    a common ancestor.

    For each individual, the crucial grouping, beyond
    the people he or she was actually living with was the
    aett.... the eight degrees fo kinship.

    In Iceland, a cognatic lineage consisted of an
    ancestral couple and thei descendants and thos to whom
    you were linkedby marriage. A stock was all your
    ancestors, and a kindred all your relations within a
    significant degree. Your kinsmen were those you could
    count on for all kinds of help. Originally the aett,
    or kin group, may have consisted of those wo held land
    in common. The term "coming into aett" was used for
    the affiliation of illegitmate children. For a fuller
    discussion of the complexitites, see Hastrup's
    'Culture and History in Medieval Iceland (1985)'.

    Alliances within a tribe were mutable, but loyalty
    to the immediate kin group was absolute."


    *the Viking era was C.E., late 700s to the late 1000s.


    This is all from a book i had once about the Runic
    Alphabet, unfortunately i do not not know the actual
    name, or the author, but i photocopied that page.
    Obviously they are describing a pretty warlike society
    with phrases like 'migratory army'. But there are
    still some very good concepts in there.
    Although they are called 'Germanic tribes', from what
    i can tell they were not really 'Leavers', they were
    conquering tribes. They developed as distinctly
    Germanic at a point after the Taker revolution, and
    had certainly been reached by it.
    The Vikings for example are not known to have been on
    good terms with the people of Canada when they were
    there, or the Inuit in Greenland during the brief life
    of that settlement.
    However, their constant movement away from
    Scandinavia was usually to escape christian conversion
    enthusiasts (who are often more brutal and violent than
    the Vikings themselves) and the oppression from the
    goverments, and this is always a good thing :)
    • Good quotes! Barbaric! ;)

      One thing to beware of is the "Balkanizing" effect of tribalism. IMHO it starts when a tribe gets too big and politics takes hold. Someone makes a bid for power by demonizing another tribe. I bid you resist that.