Couldn’t Give A Rats Ass If Anyone Sees My Little Contribution - Blog Posts
A quick TLDR summary of potential words to use instead of “Tribe”:
- nation
- people/peoples
- community
- chiefdom
- kingroup
- village
- kingdom
- civilisation
- mob (used specifically by and for First Nations Australians)
Where to use each will come down to context
for example “chiefdom” or “kingdom” might be better used communicating the specific social/political structure of certain peoples, while words like “community” or “village” might be better employed by members of the community as a casual referential term (I.e. “we better get back, the rest of the village might be wondering where we are”)
Of course, (from me at least not necessarily OP) take this as a grain of salt as I am neither a linguist nor someone who has any real experience as part of a chiefdom, Kin Group or Mob.
My contributions are specifically based on what little I have picked up from First Nations friends of mine, and may not be representative of how all First Nations people feel about such terms. It is important to understand that while there may be similarities in social structures, different peoples (especially in Africa which had a vast variety of different cultures, physical and social/political infrastructure, and traditions).
So often people of colour are lumped together as all having lived in the same cookie cutter stereotype of what a white imperialist interpretation of a primitive society. This blatantly ignore the vast and incredibly unique and beautiful complexity of different cultures all over the world that are so much more interesting, in favour of not having to think about them at all or god forbid entertain the idea that there may be alternate ways of living than the one we are used to.
my first reading in my African history class this year is about why using “tribe” to refer to ethnic groups stems from a racist desire to make African conflicts sound primitive or stemming from a desire to pretend that these are just ancient conflicts that have always existed. great article and I also feel like I’m vicariously experiencing the bullshittery that this author has been subjected to from people they’ve tried to talk to about this. like the article remains extremely professional but you can just hear in the tone that they’re talking through gritted teeth, you can practically see the customer service smile
[ID: a screenshot from a section of the article titled “But why not use ‘tribe’? Answers to common arguments.” Under the bullet point for the argument “Africans talk about themselves in terms of tribes” is written, “Commonly when Africans learn English they are taught that tribe is the term that English-speakers will recognize. But what underlying meaning in their own languages are Africans translating when they say tribe? Take the word isizwe in Zulu. In English, writers often refer to the Zulu tribe, whereas in Zulu the word for the Zulu as a group would be isizwe. Often Zulu-speakers will use the English word tribe because that’s what they think English speakers expect, or what they were taught in school. Yet Zulu linguists say that a better translation of isizwe is nation or people.” /end ID]
translation: “ ‘Oh ho ho but some Africans themselves say tribe!’ You dipshit. You fucking donkey. When someone has a word that means “nation” or “people” in their own language but then when they learn English YOU TELL THEM IT TRANSLATES TO “TRIBE” then THAT WILL BE THE WORD THEY USE. Maybe if you LISTENED TO THE LINGUISTS OF THAT GROUP you’d have more accurate information. Asshole.”
each point is repeated over and over with like five different examples because you just know there are dipshits out there who will keep arguing.
to the anonymous author of this article for the Africa Policy Information Center I hope you have a good day every day and experience fewer people being assholes about this, your patience is actually legendary