Entry 29:
The most basic unit of society is the individual. Each individual is as an interconnect-able unit, which can, once connected to other individuals, become more complex social units. There are two other possible units available to society, and the individual units themselves voluntarily assemble themselves into these higher units.
Available, to the individual, are the social units of family and tribe. Family is the unit that most people are familiar with, it comprises the individual unit and her related units. Often, this extends past the immediate family, but not necessarily. If a relative is unknown to the individual, when they meet it may take time for that unit to be assimilated into the family.
The tribe is a lesser known concept. While family members need to be physically acquainted with each other (at least at some point) to be a social unit, a tribes members, for the most part, need not even know of each others existence. Thats not to say that tribes are comprised of faceless individuals; they are not. But it is usually impossible to know personally every individual inside the tribe, unless it is an extremely small tribe.
There are many examples of tribes, for instance, organizations that include people who are not physically related but are related because of an ideal, idea, concept, goal, or any combination thereof. But not all such organizations are tribes. Gangs are usually comprised of large enough numbers to be considered tribes, and are usually brought together without physical relations, but, nevertheless, they are considered a family unit. This is because relations within the gang are carried out as if it were a family, not a tribe.
Another example of a tribe would be nation-states. A nation-state is comprised of many individuals who assemble themselves into families and tribes, but most of them still feel a part of the national tribe, a connectedness with the other individuals in the nation-state. This is a direct result of the growth of ape populations. Once the point where individuals could no longer recognize all individuals within their clan was reached, the nation-state was created. This is theorized to be between 120-150 individuals.
Some might find it odd that a comparison between the nation-states of today, such as Great Britain, Mexico, and Denmark, and the first tribes of the distant past can exist. But, assuredly, direct comparisons can be drawn. The nation-state is comprised of a leader, his servants and family, tribes associated with him, and then finally the masses of individuals assembled into their own tribes and families. For example, the President of the United States of America is the leader of that nation (if only for a maximum of eight years), and under him are his servants (his board of appointed officials), tribes such as congress, the Senate, and the military, and then, finally, there are the individuals.
Much as we might like to think ourselves far superior to our distant ancestors who barely held a concept of society, we are not. They assembled themselves into the exact same societal archetype as we do. It may not have been democratic, but it held the same architecture. There was a leader, his servants and family, associated tribes (strategic alliances with other individuals were the first tribes), and, finally, all of the individuals who followed him but do not fit in the above categories.
We are the same, in this regard. All that has changed is the complexity of our society, and this only because of the sheer mass of the individuals within it. <To be continued>
Questions: Is there a distinction between tribe and over-tribe? Why did this system arise instead of a myriad of other possibilites?
