Lupine Publishers | The Roots of Society-Destroying Tribalism
Lupine Publishers | Journal of Anthropological and Archaeological Sciences Opinion Self-serving “our way or the highway” Tribalism is a ruinous societal malady that results in racial discrimination, xenophobia, religious prejudice, gender discrimination and even the distrust some harbor for arcane college professors and their so-called “hidden knowledge.” All know its destructive impact, in the U.S. sought to be offset by voter rights legislation, Title IX strictures, public education and the like. But is it enough to deal piecemeal with the results and ignore their cause? Perhaps if we understood the roots of the sickness, we might better remedy its symptoms. My notion is that Tribalism is innate in human beings, a genetically determined trait of Homo sapiens. In a 2019 essay in the Washington Post Sebastian Junger argued that political polarization is inbred. To me, the impact of such underpinning seems far broader. Tribalism, like any trait shared by...