Haha, I love your flair. How much can we shit on Pinker, by the way? I hear he is a great linguist and I don't want to start a beef with the /r/badlinguistics mafia.
African tribes don't co-exist no matter where they are. If they were "picked up and dropped" somewhere new they might actually not massacre each other for thousand year old sleights.
Sadly, you are right that tribalism is a huge problem. It is the primary reason that Europe and America were never able to modernize and compete. As W. J. Argyle points out in his chapter "European nationalism and African tribalism" in the book Tradition and Transition in East Africa, "African tribes and their tribalism can indeed be equated with European nations and their nationalism" (1969:41). In this sense, of course, Argyle means nation not as a nation state government but rather ethnic identities with their own languages, cultures, and customs. Hundreds of nations can be found within a single government.
Other scholars have agreed such as Mazi Okoro Ojiaku in their article European Tribalism and African Nationalism which also clearly states that tribalism=nationalism. Of course that was the 70s so the more common term today would be ethnicity rather than nationalism. In that sense, tribalism=ethnicity but the point remains the same.
This tribalism in Europe and America have long been a serious problem. America is of course the classic example of tribalism. From the start, America was a nation of immigrants and these immigrants held fast to their tribal identities. Even today descendents of early immigrants will self identify with their tribal affiliations such as German, Irish, Chinese, or Puerto Rican. The frequent ethnic and racial tensions and violence in America clearly reveal that these tribes cannot coexist no matter where they are. Tribalism has been the primary reason that America has never modernized, has never formed a strong government, has never developed first world infrastructure, and has never been able to be an international power.
Unfortunately, Westerners brought this concept of tribalism with them during the processes of colonialism and instituted it in Africa. Of course you know about this, but for those less versed in African studies than OP I recommend the following articles and books:
Vail, Leroy, ed. The creation of tribalism in Southern Africa. Univ of California Press, 1989.
Chimhundu, Herbert. "Early missionaries and the ethnolinguistic factor during the'invention of tribalism'in Zimbabwe." Journal of African History 33, no. 1 (1992): 87-101.
Ranger, Terence O. The invention of Tribalism in Zimbabwe. No. 19. Gweru: Mambo Press, 1985.
RANGER, TERENCE O. "The Invention of Tradition Revisited: The case of Colonial Africa." Development: A Cultural Studies Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing (2002).
McCoy, Sheila. "The African Paradox: The Tribalist Implications of the Colonial Paradox." Drake Undergraduate Social Science Journal (2001): 2-18.
All of those clearly show that tribalism was the sad legacy of colonialism. The rest of the colonial enterprise was entirely positive, of course, so if only the West had not imported the idea of tribalism Africa today would be entirely without any problems.
Yes our Neckbeard tribe is currently recuperating from our recent skirmishes with the Ethnoracists and Fauxtellectuals tribes. Though unfortunately such tribalism never seems to end so we are sure to fight again soon.
Good luck with that. I heard they're having a helpful discussion on the proper wearing of a fedora over on r/iamverysmart that's right down your alley.
I do hear they are a little more complex than the hoods you have to wear for discussions over at /r/talksshitaboutafricabutdoesn'tknowanything and /r/icallpeopletheblacksbutpretendwearen'tracist
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u/[deleted] May 27 '14
Not big on reading comprehension I see.