As I sat watching the victory parade for the San Francisco Giants, it hit me strongly how tribal we still are.
Today, our tribes may be those with the same skin color, religion, economic level, or favorite sports team, but we still perpetuate the age-old mentality of “it’s my people versus yours.” We want to protect and provide for our own, yet have no qualms in denying the rights of those with the same needs that are not part of our tribe. Moreover, the distinctions we choose for who’s in and who’s out of our group can be extremely arbitrary. Among the Maasai people, tribes can be formed based on the number of cows.
I don’t believe that forming groups of like people is harmful in and of itself; it’s what we do with those distinctions that can be destructive. Witness the ongoing racial tension that still tears much of this nation apart and the different religious groups killing each other around the world.
Perhaps forming tribes is an inherent part of the human species, just like dogs run in packs and primates form families. But among animals, groups often form in response to limited resources or as an evolutionary mechanism to guarantee reproduction. Humans form tribes even when there’s plenty to go around for everyone and when there’s no danger of replicating their gene pool. Besides, aren’t we supposed to have evolved to a higher level of consciousness? Will there ever come a time when we view all humans as one big tribe, or better yet, all living things on the planet?
© 2010 by Laurie Gardner
