tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4245279442880338057.post6097030655410429778..comments2023-11-26T01:12:05.167-08:00Comments on Materials for Two Theories: TIMN and STA:C: The problem is preternatural tribalism, more than Islamic extremism — a reiterationDavid Ronfeldthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488855410947866567noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4245279442880338057.post-43972597815267086372015-02-07T12:38:35.816-08:002015-02-07T12:38:35.816-08:00
all good to hear. i welcome the encouragement. ...<br />all good to hear. i welcome the encouragement. and i like your question, for it is one i’ve wondered about too. i’ve been collecting materials about it for some time, but i’m still far from going through them and writing a new post. i can offer a few preliminary remarks nonetheless.<br /><br />right now i’m not aware of any person or center that could do what i’d like to see done. but there are positive signs: <br /><br />• this past year or two i’ve seen more references to tribal this-or-that, tribes, and/or tribalism than ever before, and across a broader array of domestic and foreign fields. usage is growing and spreading into new areas.<br /><br />• many expressions indicate that the writer or speakers grasps that the tribal form is a distinctive form of organization, thought, and behavior. he or she is not just using “tribe” or “tribal” merely as a trendy synonym for, say, being partisan or divisive. <br /><br />• it would help if the writer or speaker could lay out what he or she understands to be the distinctiveness of the tribal form, not just by itself but also relative to (i.e., in comparison to) other major forms. i see only hints that this may be occurring when someone seems to notice differences between tribal and institutional modes of behavior. i don’t expect adoption of the full TIMN framework, but something comparative along those lines would help embed the significance of tribes and tribalism into people’s thinking, so its significance doesn’t just float as a loose concept.<br /><br />• it would also help if the writer or speaker would view tribes in an evolutionary sense, as a first-and-forever form, whose enduring nature and significance changes as societies progress and/or regress. as with the prior point, this is not happening to the extent i’d like to see, but it is happening better than several years ago.<br /><br />i hope that helps as a reply. onward.<br /><br />David Ronfeldthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06488855410947866567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4245279442880338057.post-38770241566227610942015-02-06T14:50:28.175-08:002015-02-06T14:50:28.175-08:00David, I deeply appreciate that you keep bringing ...David, I deeply appreciate that you keep bringing the TIMN perspective to these conversations. The mainstream Islamist perspective seems a little barren both in depth of thinking and also in practical effect.<br /><br />I was struck in this blog by your statement that anthropology has abandoned "tribe" as an analytical concept. Other than your own work, do you have any advice on who might write about the Tribal form in useful ways?Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09326974068120749938noreply@blogger.com