Neotribalism, also known as modern tribalism or new tribalism, is a sociological concept which postulates that
human beings have evolved to live in
tribal society, as opposed to
mass society, and thus will naturally form
social networks constituting new
tribes.
Sociological theory
French sociologist
Michel Maffesoli was perhaps the first to use the term ''neotribalism'' in a scholarly context in his 1988 book ''
The Time of the Tribes''. Maffesoli predicted that as the culture and institutions of
modernism declined, societies would embrace
nostalgia
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
and look to the organizational principles of the distant past for guidance, and that therefore the
post-modern era would be the era of neotribalism.
Work by researchers such as American political scientist
Robert D. Putnam and a 2006 study by McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Brasiers published in the ''
American Sociological Review'' seem to support at least the more moderate neotribalist arguments.
The notion of neotribalism is used in the field of consumer research under the label consumer tribes.
See also
*
Anarcho-primitivism
*
Communalism
*
Evolutionary psychology
*
Kinism
*
National-anarchism
*
Tribalism
References
{{reflist
Social theories
Subcultures
Syncretic political movements