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
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
, as opposed to
mass society
Mass society is a concept that describes modern society as a monolithic force and yet a disaggregate collection of individuals. It is often used pejoratively to refer to a society in which bureaucracy and impersonal institutions have replaced some ...
, and thus will naturally form
social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods fo ...
s constituting new
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...
s.
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
''The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society'' (french: Le Temps des tribus : le déclin de l'individualisme dans les sociétés de masse) is a 1988 book by the French sociologist Michel Maffesoli. It argues that mass so ...
''. Maffesoli predicted that as the culture and institutions of
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
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 compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word ...
and look to the organizational principles of the distant past for guidance, and that therefore the
post-modern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
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
The ''American Sociological Review'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of sociology. It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the American Sociological Association. It was established in 1936. The editors- ...
'' 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
Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of civilization (anti-civ) that advocates a return to non-civilized ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, and abandonment of large-scale organ ...
*
Communalism
Communalism may refer to:
* Communalism (Bookchin), a theory of government in which autonomous communities form confederations
* , a historical method that follows the development of communities
* Communalism (South Asia), violence across ethnic ...
*
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evo ...
*
Kinism
Kinism is a white nationalist interpretation of Christianity. The ideology is a "movement of anti-immigrant, ' Southern heritage' separatists who splintered off from Christian Reconstructionism to advocate the belief that God's intended order is ...
*
National-anarchism
National-anarchism is a radical right-wing.... nationalist ideology which advocates racial separatism, racial nationalism, ethnic nationalism, and racial purity... National-anarchists claim to syncretize neotribal ethnic nationalism with ph ...
*
Tribalism
Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small hunter-gatherer groups, as opposed to in larger and more recently settled agricultural societies or civ ...
References
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Social theories
Subcultures
Syncretic political movements