HOW TRIBAL ARE WE?

The word ‘tribal’ is often perceived to mean pre-modern, inferior, and backwards. The reality is that humans are tribal by nature and it is in our ethnic, religious, and sectarian affiliations that we most often ascribe our sense of belonging.

Amy Chua published an amazing book on this topic titled 'Political Tribes: Group Instinct and The Fate of Nations.’ Her argument is that most, if not all of the foreign policy failures of the United States of America came about due to an inability or refusal to acknowledge the power of the tribal identities of its geopolitical neighbors.

We want to look at this concept at the local and familial level. Are we all tribal by definition? What are our tribal affiliations, and how strong are they?

ICELAND-Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash