Tribalism

Some thoughts and quotes about tribalism:

It's been seven years since I was awakened to the fact that humans lived in tribes for most of their existance on this planet. And for the most part they were equal in the political, ecomomical, and social aspect of things.

It's amazing how much a member of this cultures perspective can change when they discover that we are not humanity. And where humans are still found living in tribes things are working well for them.

After first reading Quinn's work, I tried to explain to my uncle as best as I could how well tribalism worked for Homo sapien.

He responded with: "Do you really want to live with the constant fear that a neighboring tribe will rob you blind at any moment." Or, " Don't you remember what the United States government did to the group of people living in that compound in Waco, Texas. They killed them, Curt. Do you really want this to happen to you?"

If I remember right, I didn't even try to explain that some circuses are tribal and work well. Also, the US government isn't hunting them down, I don't think anyway.

This is just Mother Culture at work.

A ran across this gem of a quote about tribalism in TSOB: People will sometimes charge me with just being in love with tribalism. They say to me in effect, "If you love it so much, why don't you just go do it and leave the rest of us alone?" Those who understand me in this way totally misunderstand what I'm saying. The tribal lifestyle isn't precious because it's beautiful or lovable or because it's "close to nature." It isn't even precious because it's "the natureal way for people to live." To me this is gibberish. This is like saying that bird migration is good because it's the natural way for birds to live, like saying that bear hibernation is good beause it's th natural way for bears to live. The tirbal life is precious because it tested out. For three million year it worked for people . It worked for people the way nests work for birds, the way webs work for spiders, the way burrows work for moles, the way hibernation works for bears. That doesn't make it loveable, that makes it viable." pg.319

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