In the United States too, despite its long-cherished melting pot ethos, we see the rise of tribalism and identity politics. People attend the "Equality Parade" rally in support of the LGBT community, in Warsaw, Poland on June 19, 2021. Yet we have seen in recent years an intensifying standoff in the country between supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, and conservatives who oppose them, with some parts of the country declaring themselves "LGBT-free zones" amid strong resistance from liberals. Poland, for instance, is an ethnically homogenous country, with Poles comprising more than 95 per cent of the population. Significantly, even monoethnic societies have not been immune from the "new tribalism". These encompass many ethnicities and religious groups. There are other identity markers that are driving what we might call "the new tribalism" of the modern era.įor example, the culture wars that we now see in the West cut across a huge swathe of issues - from abortion rights to voting rights from woke culture to even vaccinations and mask-wearing. But "tribe" is not just a matter of ethnicity. It is certainly easier to make citizens out of a group of people who look the same, speak the same language, and share a common history. Some think that ethnically homogenous countries are less susceptible to tribal conflicts. As he puts it, once tribalism takes hold, it's "almost impossible.to prevent it from destroying the much harder work of establishing multi-racial nationhood and citizenship" because it is an 'ancient narcotic'. A military historian Victor Davis Hanson likened tribalism to an "ancient narcotic". The point is that tribalism runs deep in all human societies. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, was said to have burned countless philosophical texts and treatises in conquered states, with the goal of unifying China under the official Qin identity, language and thought. The Neo-Assyrian Empire, for example, deported conquered tribes and peoples to different parts of the empire so as to dilute their identities and attenuate tribal loyalties.
Other ancient empires too struggled with tribalism.
The overwhelming majority were partial citizens of various kinds or slaves.īut despite the limited nature of its citizenship, Rome demonstrated the possibility of different tribes coming together, under a common banner, and changing the course of history. Only a small group of people could hope to become Roman citizens, typically male children of existing Roman citizens, or individuals in the provinces who had done great service to the empire. Neither the republic nor the empire believed in a universal franchise. In exchange, Roman citizens were expected to perform various civic duties, chief of which was to defend Rome when necessary.