From Academic Kids

Church considers a "tribe" to be a higher-level grouping of people than "clan" -- the church defines "clan" as a group of related families.

Groups on a higher level than "tribe" could be "race" or "nation" (it depends).

I haven't the slightest idea if the church usage is common or ideosyncratic.

--Ed Poor

Is the definition of "tribe" defined by statute in some nations? For instance in the United States, one hears of "recognized" and "unrecognized" Indian "tribes". This leads me to believe there is some official criteria in determining whether a people constitute a tribe.

I think, though I'm not sure, that a "recognized" tribe is one that the US government has signed a treaty with. Tokerboy 05:02 Dec 31, 2002 (UTC)

As for the question above, I usually have understood a "clan" to be a smaller subset of a tribe.

Other than being "smaller" (or bigger) is a clan substantially different from a tribe? Pizza Puzzle

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After reading this article I have very little idea what a "tribe" actually is. Can we have articles begin with actually telling the reader what the heck they're all about before jumping headlong into some obscure controversy? Graft 20:33 17 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Well, you tell me. I tried to add some more specific content in the first paragraph -- but it is hard to tell a reader what a tribe is "about" given that many people argue they don't really exist (I mean, sociologically -- not legally), and there is no real consensus on how to define or describe them. Slrubenstein

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especially corporate descent groups

What? What does this mean? Daelin

Clans and lineages. Slrubenstein

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I believe this is more or less the standard anthropological meaning of tribe: A tribe is a small society, bound by kin relations, with its own customs, culture, etc. What distinguishes a tribe from a clan is that tribes see themselves as being a totally separate people from other tribes. Clans are large kin groups that are distinct in some way, but are still part of a larger society. Tribes, however, make up an entire society. this of course involves lots of grey area: what is a separate society, what is not a separate society. But that, I believe, is the difference between the terms Clan and Tribe.

Then another concept is "band," as in band society. A band is considered to be a separate society even smaller than a tribe, and with even less formal structure. But a band is still bound by kin relations, like a tribe or a clan.

Fishal 20:58, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

This isn't quite true. Anthropologists use the word "tribe" in different ways and I think the article gives a decent summary of these ways. A clan is a unilineal corporate descent group with stipulated descent. Tribes are often but not necessarily divided into descent groups (like clans or lineages). Fried demonstrated conclusively that tribes do not have their "own" culture -- some tribes are heterogeneous, culturally, and some tribes share culture with other tribes. Tribes do not necessarily see themselves as completely separate from other tribes (although they may be politically autonomous). Slrubenstein

List of tribes

Please, can we start one? I'm not all that familiar with them so I'm interested in perusing the various Wiki entries about them.

Iriqouis

Sioux

Aztec

African tribes

Viking clans/tribes etc.

I suggest the format go: Tribe name, location, timeperiod/notes. Or is there already one there? I'm also going to create a redirect from Tribes > the vid game, to Tribes > this article. As I am sure the definition of "tribes" meaning multiple of the literal term will surely outlast the influence of "Tribes" the game --Duemellon 13:18, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)