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Tribe

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Culture and Diversity

   A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social
   group existing before the development of, or outside of, states, though
   some modern theorists hold that contemporary tribes can only be
   understood in terms of their relationship to states.

   The term is often loosely used to refer to any non- Western or
   indigenous society. Many anthropologists use the term to refer to
   societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially
   corporate descent groups (see clan and lineage).

   In common modern understanding the word tribe is a social division
   within a traditional society consisting of a group of interlinked
   families or communities sharing a common culture and dialect. In the
   contemporary western mind the modern tribe is typically associated with
   a seat of traditional authority (tribal leader) with whom the
   representatives of external (eg state or occupying) powers interact.

Terminology

   Considerable debate takes place over how best to characterize tribes.
   Some of this debate stems from perceived differences between pre-state
   tribes and contemporary tribes; some of this debate reflects more
   general controversy over cultural evolution and colonialism. In the
   popular imagination, tribes reflect a way of life that predates, and is
   more "natural", than that in modern states. Tribes also privilege
   primordial social ties, are clearly bounded, homogeneous, parochial,
   and stable. Thus, many believed that tribes organize links between
   families (including clans and lineages), and provide them with a social
   and ideological basis for solidarity that is in some way more limited
   than that of an "ethnic group" or of a " nation". Anthropological and
   ethnohistorical research has challenged all of these notions.

   In his 1972 study, The Notion of the Tribe, Morton Fried provided
   numerous examples of tribes the members of which spoke different
   languages and practised different rituals, or that shared languages and
   rituals with members of other tribes. Similarly, he provided examples
   of tribes where people followed different political leaders, or
   followed the same leaders as members of other tribes. He concluded that
   tribes in general are characterized by fluid boundaries and
   heterogeneity, are not parochial, and are dynamic.

Indigenous peoples

   In some countries, such as the United States and India, tribes are
   indigenous peoples that have been granted legal recognition and limited
   autonomy by the state. Tribal governments can consist of one supreme
   ruler (i.e. a tribal chief), or some form of a tribal council, which
   usually consists of a group of elders. See also: Hunter gatherer.

Origins

   Archeologists continue to explore the development of pre-state tribes.
   Current research suggests that tribal structures constituted one type
   of adaptation to situations providing plentiful yet unpredictable
   resources. Such structures proved flexible enough to co-ordinate
   production and distribution of food in times of scarcity, without
   limiting or constraining people during times of surplus.

   Fried, however, proposed that most contemporary tribes do not have
   their origin in pre-state tribes, but rather in pre-state bands. Such
   "secondary" tribes, he suggested, actually came about as modern
   products of state expansion. Bands comprise small, mobile, and fluid
   social formations with weak leadership, that do not generate surpluses,
   pay no taxes and support no standing army. Fried argued that secondary
   tribes develop in one of two ways. First, states could set them up as
   means to extend administrative and economic influence in their
   hinterland, where direct political control costs too much.

   States would encourage (or require) people on their frontiers to form
   more clearly bounded and centralized polities, because such polities
   could begin producing surpluses and taxes, and would have a leadership
   responsive to the needs of neighboring states (the so-called
   "scheduled" tribes of the United States or of British India provide
   good examples of this). Second, bands could form "secondary" tribes as
   a means to defend themselves against state expansion. Members of bands
   would form more clearly bounded and centralized polities, because such
   polities could begin producing surpluses that could support a standing
   army that could fight against states, and they would have a leadership
   that could coordinate economic production and military activities.
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