Humans are innately tribal. We need to belong to groups (tribes) and maintain fulfilling relationships with others. This need significantly impacts how we interact with each other and, in turn, society.
Dictionary Definition
A tribe is a group of people, often of related families, who live together, sharing the same language, culture, and history, especially those who do not live in towns or cities.
For example, a tribe of Amazonian Indians or the Masai tribe.
Credit: Cambridge Dictionary
We evolved to be tribal.
For the first 150,000 years of our existence, we lived in tribes, even longer if we consider our earlier hominid ancestors.
There was a substantial survival advantage to cooperating and being loyal to members of our group, competing, and even engaging in warfare with outsiders struggling for the same resources.
Those more predisposed to tribalism were thus more likely to survive and pass down their genes to the next generation.
Tribalism is in our genes.
Modern Day Usage
In recent years, the word tribe has taken on a broader meaning than the definition you will find in most dictionaries, such as the entry above.
Today, the word is frequently used to refer to any social group with a strong identity.
Tag: tribes (10)
These social groups are diverse and are based on various identities such as nationhood, political affiliation, age, race or ethnicity, religion, social class, profession, culture, language, disability, education, gender identity, occupation, sexual orientation, and many others.
Our Tribal Nature
Our Tribal Nature: Tribalism, Politics, and Evolution | The Leakey FoundationTribalism is innate, we cannot evade it, but we can recognize it and mitigate against it.
Detailed Resources
- Big Think: Humanity solved the “trust paradox” by going tribal — and paid a horrific price by David R. Samson (2023)
Posts that link to this post
- Most of Our Knowledge Is a Delusion We know far less than we think we do
- The Knowledge Delusion We know far less than we think we do
- What Are Beliefs? Ideas that are held to be true but not necessarily supported by any evidence
- Tribal Thinking Tribe before truth
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