This: the social structure

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.

Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups (see clan and lineage).

The term is often loosely used to refer to

• historically, nations or ethnic groups that were not organized around urban centers;
• contemporarily, any non-Western or "indigenous" society.

Some modern theorists hold that contemporary tribes can only be understood in terms of their relationship to states.

Etymology

English tribe occurs in 13th century Middle English literature as referring to one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The word is from Old French tribu, in turn from Latin tribus, the name of the tripartite ethnic divisions of the original Roman state (Tites, Ramnes, and Luceres, corresponding, perhaps, to the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans). The term's ultimate etymology is uncertain, perhaps from the PIE roots *tri- "three" and *bhew- "to be".

From 241 BC, the Tribal Assembly (comitia tributa) in the Roman Republic was organized in 35 Tribes (4 "Urban Tribes" and 31 "Rural Tribes"). The Latin word as used in the Bible translates Greek phyle "race, tribe, clan". In the historical sense, "tribe", "race" or "clan" can be used interchangeably.

Definition

Anthropologists Morton H. Fried and Elman Service presented a system of classification for societies in all human cultures based on the evolution of social inequality and the role of the state. This system of classification contains four categories:

1. Hunter-gatherer bands, which are generally egalitarian.
2. Tribal societies in which there are some limited instances of social rank and prestige.
3. Stratified tribal societies led by chieftains.
4. Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments.

A tribal society is thus characterized as having an intermediate amount of social stratification, more than in a mere band society, but less than in a civilization. As in the case of the Roman Republic, or later the Ashanti Empire, the transition from a tribal society to a confederacy of tribes and finally to a full-fledged urban civilization with central government is a gradual process and lacks any clear definition.

Tribes by region

Old World

• Europe
• Classical Antiquity
• List of Ancient Greek tribes
• Illyrian tribes
• Germanic tribes
• List of Celtic tribes
• Near East
• Ancient Near East
• Twelve Tribes of Israel
• Iranian tribes
• Modern (see Ethnic groups of the Middle East)
• Tribes of Arabia
• Arab tribes in Iraq
• South Asia
• Antiquity
• Rigvedic tribes
• Modern
• List of Scheduled Tribes in India
• Adivasi
• Africa
• List of African ethnic groups
• Bantu speaking peoples of South Africa