Tribe - A loaded word

[mattphillips11]

I'm hoping that this will generate some discussion. My take is agreement: I ask you, can you define "tribe" clearly?

Using "Tribe" and "Tribalism" Categories to Misunderstand Africa
African Studies Program Outreach, University of Wisconsin-Madison
By David Wiley, African Studies Center
Michigan State University (1981)
SourceTribe, a concept that has

Comments

[erewhile]

I don't know if I could really define tribe, but personally, I never associate anything negative with the word or the people it usually describes. Tribe, to me, is a pretty positive image; I think of community, simplicity, the natural state of being, a lot, though I know "tribe" encompasses a lot more than that. And certainly, I don't view "tribal" people as any less. In fact, I find their ways fascinating and admire some of their ways in comparison to modern society. I love a lot of things about "tribal" people.

I think it's a shame that "tribal = less" to some...

[mira_yamcha]

This is an excellent article.
It's so easy to use a term like 'tribe' because it has come to occupy that perception and idea of 'other' that is inherent in the western view of native societies and their structures, a perception which may be unfounded or even subconscious but which most westerners will still be able to identify and relate to.
It's great to see articles like this that are reflexive and critical of issues that question what is normally dismissed as everyday and taken for granted.

If I could lay off the weed I'd have something much more valuable to say.
x

[ragnarok20]

And what about Germanic tribes? The notion of the other that you are incorporating into this argument seems to imply only notions of tribes that didn't exist in the West.

[mira_yamcha]

Right, if I say 'tribe' or 'tribal', any westerner is gonna get an automatic image in their mind of our general cultural idea of what a tribe is. Everyone can recognise it. It implies ideas of primitivity and of being unadvanced.
That's the notion I mean. Germanic tribes, whatever.
Like I said, weed.
x

[mattphillips11]

No. Germanic "barbarian" tribes are othered in comparison to Roman "civilization."

[ragnarok20]

Is there a better way you could format this?

Fuck...I thought cloudstrider was defunct by now.

[mattphillips11]

Well, the LJ community is, but the 'new' site is very active. You're welcome to check it out.

[mallyns]

There are two ways I use the word tribe.

In modern terms, tribe to me means family.

The second term is when speaking of Athenian "tribes" during the Hellenistic period.

[the_samosaurus]

::scratches head:: This is quite the interesting article. Now, I was always under the impression that "tribe" was suppose to denote the size of a group of people. Now, what the cut-off size is between a "band" and a "tribe", a "community" and a "nation" and blah blah IS, I have no idea. XD It is certainly an ambigious term. Hm.