Understanding human behaviour comes down to an understanding of a basic human condition: We exist in tribes. This condition seems hardwired into us. How we describe our tribe depends on many situations, but it is a cornerstone of how people work and consequently, how we behave.
We understand the concept of tribe in different ways today. In hunter-gatherer days our tribe were those who lived near us and had the same dog-tooth-on-a-sinew-around-the-neck. We could identify other tribe members by their dog tooth on a rope and didn’t have to know every individual tribe member, although we usually did and if we met someone who didn’t have the dog tooth on a rope, they were strangers and strangers, we learned, were very dangerous; they stole our food and hit us with rocks. So we called our other dog-tooth buddies for defence. The tribe became our defense, our food, our companionship, childcare, health system and burial society.
Naturally, we became more sophisticated as we evolved, but the same basic loyalty remained. Today, we’re loyal to many tribes; ethnicity, political viewpoint, car ownership, location, or socioeconomic strata. The essential concept of this is still tribal. A small group of people with definable commonality of viewpoint.
The reason I bring this up, is Iraq is in the process of being overrun by the US, who have promised not to pick up the pink slip to the country. The United States will turn over the joint to the people of Iraq. Canada will get involved as peacekeepers and humanitarian aid people, as is our usual way. However, the one group being left out of discussions here is the people of Iraq.
Will the resort to being tribes again? Human history has taught us the essential and smallest unit of loyalty is the tribe, so I see no reason why this should be an exception now. Iraq will become a tribal enclave as human beings always revert to tribes, especially in times of stress. I propose that invasion and war counts as ‘stress’.
How many tribes will pop up? Probably hundreds, if not thousands. So, how do we manage this mass of grumpy, suspicious, fearful and belligerent tribes? I have no idea and I suspect that the UN and the US have no idea either. What I can say for sure is that trying to supplant the baked-in-at-the-factory loyalty to a tribe with something bigger, never works.
Somalia should be a case in point. When Somalia imploded, one of the key reasons was people were loyal to their tribe, not the country and viewed anyone not of their tribe, in a position of power, as a threat, as they knew, in their heart of hearts, that the politician in power who was not of their tribe, was going to throw rocks at them, or steal their food: Rebellion, mass starvation, conflict, yadda, yadda, yadda, thousands dead…etc.etc. etc..We know the words to that song all too well.
Watch how the tribes in Iraq start jockeying for position. The Kurdistan have already staked out their piece, having fought the Baghdad government for years, demanding their own homeland.
My, my my, sounds like the Israeli/Palestinian deal all over again. Let’s see…1947 minus 2003….50, 56 years or so of, essentially, tribal warfare.
It all comes down to tribes.
RoadDave 