re: #302 Fairly Sure I’m Still Obdicut

You didn’t mention anything about ‘require you to participate’. Tribes require you to participate?

Yes.

Well, yeah, and interest groups, families, schools we went to, cities we’re from, etc. etc.

Depending on what you mean by ‘instiuttion’, maybe, but what does this have to do with tribalism?

So what about a left-wing Mormon and a Mormon who’s part of that ‘segment of the right wing’? Are they part of the same ‘tribe’?

Again, is tribalism exclusive, or not? We belong to disparate groups that don’t align perfectly, or sometimes at all, with each other.

I still am completely unclear on what you, or anyone else means, by ‘tribalist’. It generally seems to get used in two different ways: As a synonym for ‘factionalism’, when describing the groups that tend to revile and reject people who aren’t sufficiently fervent, like emoprogs who reject as insufficiently progressive anyone who supports Obama, or conservatives who reject any GOP member that’s at all nice to or works with the Democrats. And second, it gets used about very broad groups, like the Mormons, and it seems to not actually apply to the members of that group, but just to the group. There are tons of Mormons who don’t actually work to evangelize or try to get converts, that’s a function of the group, not the individuals within the group. And the group is so big that there’s no possibility that everyone in it fits your original definition.

Well, I did start off by saying I am studying tribalism, esp as it pertains to the 21st century and in modern thought. I never said I had any concrete definitions, those were just off the top of my head (and over which I could be proved wrong) and even your trying to pin me down on those doesn’t mean they are anything I consider final.

I wasn’t aware that “studying” a subject meant I had reached any conclusions; in fact, those could be just the opposite of what I went in with. But if you want to play that kind of game, that’s up to you. Play alone, though; for myself, I’d like to study a lot more and clear my head of any preconceived notions or those of anyone else.