What do them people mean when they say Tribe/Tribal?

[WIA20XX]

Ex Mormon/low key conservative Johnny Harris gets into the issues in Yemen.

He mentions tribe @0:12 ...

Which got me to thinking, small groups in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and damn near all of Africa get called "tribes".

Meanwhile that "tribal" label is rarely used for anything happening in the G7/G20.

What the hell is a tribe?

Having lived in TX, aren't white people from Texas a tribe?
Aren't the Basques in Spain also a Tribe?
What about the French in Montreal, that don't see themselves as Canadians and aren't French either?

 

[get these nets]

Colonial language. Similar to how dudes here use the term "third world country". Assigns importance to certain groups of people, and less to others.


"Ethnic group" is used in modern era or Nation. I've heard members of the groups refer to themselves as tribes, but I try to stay clear of the term.

 

[FlimFlam]

As homeboy above said, its colonial language/framing

These people got reduced to "tribes" through genocide and colonialism... in most cases these so called "tribes" were moreso analogous to countries before white destruction

 

[987654321]

Like legit tribes. It may be our word for it but same concept. For example we would see the Kuchi “tribe” (a large nomadic group) living in a valley and would stop and chop it up with them or give them stuff they may have previously requested. They do their own thing.

The Pashtun/pashto would be considered a tribe but also a nation. There’s sub groups below that.

Sometimes loyalty is stronger at the tribal than the family level.

Like some posters said above it can be a nation from the past, sometimes not. “Tribe” is just an English word being used to describe a grouping that has similar attributes to the “tribes” we know. They have their own words for it too. No reason to over think it.