Why Tribes?

A recent Newsweek article talked about how we are being scared by so many things: economic collapse, global warming, immigrants, etc. It talks about how politicians use fear to sway our opinions. If we are afraid immigrants will hurt us, and a certain politician seems to understand the seriousness of this problem, maybe they are worth supporting to keep our worst fears from being realized.

I’ve been wondering, since I started thinking about tribes, why we are so tribal. Clearly, we are wired for tribe membership; it’s in our brains, and I presume our DNA. We MUST be with others of our own kind, and actively seek those others if we feel left out. But why? Why are we so incredibly hard wired to belong to tribes?

I think the answer may be --> fear.

As primitive people, we were always afraid. (Being afraid is not a new phenomenon, although journalists and politicians would have us think so.) We were afraid of wild animals, starvation, injury which could lead to infection and death, childbirth, floods, fire, cold weather, and other tribes. Our world was a scary place and we were vulnerable there.

Many paleontologists have proposed that we formed groups in order to be more effective at big projects, like hunting mammoths. However, the paleontological record is showing that mammoth hunting was rare. A person might participate in one of these hunts, successfully, once in their life (their life being about 20 years). Most of the food for primitive people came from hunting small game with nets (yes, nets!) and from local plants. Also, primitive people were not picky about eating grubs and worms, raw, if they were hungry.

Therefore, the notion that we would be wired for tribes just for the once-in-a-lifetime joy of killing and eating a mammoth, doesn’t fit with the current evidence. We are wired to belong to tribes all the time. We commit to tribal membership. Generally, we don’t just go to church once a year and call it our tribe; we join the church membership, get on the roster, and then go when we want. Most of us would not attend club meetings, say Rotary or Kiwanis, without an intent of actually joining. Who wants to go to meetings with a group that one does not officially belong to? Someone attends meetings because they want to be part of the program.

We join tribes, we don’t just gather with them occasionally.

If we think of primitive people as being constantly afraid, then commitment to a tribe starts to make a lot more sense. The group of humans is definitely stronger together than alone. Alone, we are weak, incompetent, clever, but probably dead. Together, we are fearsome animals. A group of humans is inventive. A tribe is strong and probably safe.

Fear has been shown to be one of the most powerful emotions that affects our decisions. Millions of talented people never use their talents because they are afraid of something. Almost everyone is more afraid of speaking in public than of dying! If you love to sing or dance or sculpt, and you’re afraid of speaking in public, chances are you’re not going to be very public about your art.

Also, fear keeps us at home, keeps us from leaving our towns, keeps us doing jobs we hate and in relationships we hate. Most people would rather face a known enemy within their tribe than an unknown enemy in another tribe. Better to stick with the spouse you don’t like any more, than face the dating scene again. ‘E gad!

It makes sense that fear, such a powerful part of the human psyche, would be the part that wires us for tribes.