Fenris 23:
There is a recurring trope among social circles that I drift though to want to refer to themselves as a tribe. Someone who sees things in terms of a developmental levels theory such as the Spiral Dynamics theory popularized by Ken Wilber might be tempted to classify this as an indicator of a lower level behaviour or social structure.
However, the behaviour being labeled tribal is not identical to the older forms under that name. Older tribe forms were based around interrelated extended family groups whereas these new “tribes” are generally assumed to be constructed of non-related individuals, exceptions of course exist.