What does tribalism mean?
Tribalism is a noun meaning strong allegiance to one’s own tribe, ethnic group, religious community, or other social faction, especially when that loyalty is accompanied by suspicion or hostility toward outsiders. In contemporary discussion, the word often describes political and social division, including conflict between communities that are treated as separate and antagonistic identities. Its negative force comes from the contrast between solidarity within a group and exclusion or hostility across group boundaries. The term can also be used more neutrally in historical and anthropological writing to refer to social organization based on tribes, although this older sense is less common today. Understanding tribalism is useful because it explains how collective identity can encourage cooperation and belonging while also producing rivalry, stereotyping, and conflict. The word should generally be used with care because describing a group as tribal can itself reinforce the divisions being discussed.
nounTribalism is the practice or condition of organizing social life around strong allegiance to a tribe or similar group, often at the expense of wider society. In modern usage it usually carries a negative sense, implying division, exclusion, or conflict between groups.
- Strong allegiance to one’s own tribe or social group, especially when that allegiance excludes or antagonizes others.
- A social or political condition in which society is divided into competing tribal or factional groups.
- In older or anthropological usage, the organization of society into tribes or kin-based communities.
"The politician was accused of using rhetoric that stoked tribalism and deepened divisions between communities."
"The speech was criticized for stoking tribalism by portraying an entire religious community as a single hostile group."
"In older accounts, tribalism referred to the organization of society into distinct tribal communities."
Rare; the word is usually used as an uncountable noun.
"The region has been affected by several forms of tribalism that have persisted for decades."
Tribalism turns “us” into a boundary: the strongest solidarity can also become the sharpest division.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does tribalism come from?
The English word was formed from “tribe” and the productive suffix “-ism,” a suffix borrowed from Greek and used to form words denoting a doctrine, condition, or practice. “Tribe” comes through Old French from Latin “tribus,” originally the name of one of the early Roman social divisions and later a general term for a social or political group. Words such as “tribal” and “tribesman” developed from the same English and Latin ancestry.
How tribalism is actually used
In contemporary English, “tribalism” is usually critical or disapproving, describing excessive group loyalty, social division, or exclusion. It can also have a more neutral historical or anthropological use when discussing the organization of society into tribes.
Easily confused with tribalism
A tribe is a social, cultural, or ethnic group, whereas tribalism refers to allegiance, division, or conflict associated with such groups.