The History of Tribalism

Michael Morris, a cultural psychologist in the Department of Psychology and the Business School at Columbia University, argues that tribalism historically was essential to the development of human intelligence and is the root of such values as altruism, cooperation, and the sharing and preservation of knowledge.

Human Cultures

Cultures arise and evolve over time, Morris explains, because individual minds encode the behaviors of those around them. Cultural codes emerge from a group’s evolved social structures. The human ability to share knowledge is unique. When someone in a Stone Age group figured out how to collect coconuts, for example, others imitated that person’s technique. Over time, the group developed a shared pool of knowledge. 

In the Stone Age, tribal interaction was a way to expand the bounds of social cohesion, to work in coordination as a united force…and to sustain and build upon the wisdom of the past.
Michael Morris

As shared knowledge grew, group members increasingly acted in similar, mutually comprehensible ways. They developed a sense of their group as “us” and formed clans, larger group affiliations that encompassed shared behaviors and knowledge. Clans formed ties with other clans, each providing knowledge, rituals, resources, and potential mates. Morris defines such a network – which may contain thousands of individuals – as a tribe.

Fossil evidence suggests that Homo erectus, a human species that lived during the early Stone Age, was the first human ancestor to live in coordinated groups, organizing squads that specialized in hunting, gathering, or cooking. Physiologist and primatologist Robin Dunbar theorized that humans evolved bigger brains not to gain better control over their habitat, but to negotiate their social sphere more adeptly.

Morris reports that early people introduced tools and weapons and developed arts, rituals, and teamwork during the Stone Age. In that era, he explains, humans also evolved a set of major tribal instincts: the “peer” instinct, the “hero” instinct, and the “ancestor” instinct.

The peer instinct fuels people’s innate striving to correlate their actions and thoughts with one another. Humans became – and remain – adept at picking up social codes from speech patterns and apparel. People who move among different groups almost unconsciously adopt different social codes.

Psychology tended to portray bicultural individuals as dwelling halfway between two cultures…since then, the field has appreciated that people can be fully at home in two or more cultures and relatively unburdened by the transitions.
Michael Morris

Certain conditions and cues, such as a tribe’s symbols, trigger the hero instinct. Symbols are among a tribe’s most powerful triggers because they represent the group’s identity and ideals.

The fossil record suggests that a new human species – Homo heidelbergensis – began performing acts of altruism – or heroism – around 500,000 years ago. For example, evidence exists of a hunter who charged ahead of his band and killed a woolly mammoth with a single throw of his spear, risking death to benefit the tribe. Instead of seeking the safety of the crowd, such heroes took on difficult or risky tasks to benefit that crowd.

The ancestor instinct developed in the late Stone Age in the species Homo sapiens – the classification that includes modern humans. Tribes began to value their ancestors for their knowledge and inspiration. This marked the birth of traditions developed for the purpose of preserving knowledge from previous generations in the form of songs, stories, and rituals.

In the late Stone Age, these three tribal instincts worked in concert to accelerate human cultural development. The peer instinct ensured that innovations and discoveries spread throughout the tribe.The hero instinct prompted people to acquire new skills. And, the ancestor instinct meant generations didn’t have to start from scratch. They could build on an existing foundation.

“Tribal Signals”

As cultures evolve, Morris teaches, people adopt new practices in response to various signals, but only when they sense that significant numbers of other people are also adopting them.

The “prestige signal” is the one that activates the hero instinct. Its role models are people with high status and social esteem – whether real or fictional. Marketers stimulate this instinct by recruiting celebrity spokespeople.

The “precedent signal” plays on people’s veneration of tradition and the past. Leaders, institutions, and marketers are relying on this signal when they promote new activities by linking them to the past, thereby imbuing a new initiative with an aura of time-tested legitimacy. For example, in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln proposed Thanksgiving as a new holiday, he referred to its historical precedents. These included a 1621 feast Pilgrims shared with Wampanoag guests – which they called a “rejoicing,” not a “thanksgiving” – and George Washington’s proposal for a “day of thanksgiving” after the end of the Revolutionary War.

Many institutions evoke the past to provide a sense of gravitas. For instance, The Bank of New York Mellon promotes images of its founder, Alexander Hamilton, to tout its longevity and the quality that implies. The architecture of the University of Chicago campus, which dates from 1890, reflects the Gothic style of England’s Oxford University, founded in the 12th century.

Tribalism: Us versus Them

Tribal instincts evolved to distinguish between an “us” group and a “them” group. Tribal instincts impel people to protect and aid their group, but not necessarily to harm other groups. However, each tribal instinct can spark instability under some conditions. For example, the peer instinct can mutate into groupthink. 

Through runaway peer-instinct processing, tribal conformity increasingly comes before truth.
Michael Morris

Morris explains that the free press and other public institutions can serve as bulwarks against groupthink by providing platforms for varied viewpoints. Social institutions, such as religious organizations and ethnic neighborhoods offer people spaces for interacting with those who share their interests and values. The decline of such institutions in modern times has led to politics becoming a more dominant marker of group identity. Each group relies on a social and media environment that confirms its beliefs so group members often form warped perceptions of the other side’s values, intentions, and levels of hostility toward them.

Contrasting Ideas

Michael Morris’s history of tribalism as a driving force in human development proves insightful and thought-provoking. He details how human tribal instincts that evolved in the Stone Age can spin out of control in the modern world. He also argues optimistically that society could harness those instincts to benefit humanity, even though it seems wistful to contend that human goodwill could mitigate tribalism as a political force. Morris writes with great skill, shifting between factual presentations of the absolute, fundamental power of tribalism and sporadic suggestions of how to suddenly derail this basic human drive when it becomes harmful. Those interested in finding overarching reasons for movements in human history – or in trying to understand today’s divisions – will find this a compelling read.