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Re: Tribe or band of refugees? » KenB

Posted by shar on October 29, 2000, at 13:45:39

In reply to Tribe or band of refugees?, posted by KenB on October 29, 2000, at 12:41:47

> Perhaps this all suggests why some people question casual use of the word “tribe” to describe a loose-knit conversation among practical strangers, and at the same time why “tribe” seems such a fitting description.


Ken,
Just to be clear, my use of the word tribe is based on the idea of a group of people characterized by a common "ancestry" or customs. Ancestry in the PB/PSB sense, meaning not geneology, but some shared experiences that many of us have in common. (Funk and Wagnall helped me with defining this.)

About as far away from a legalistic definition as one could get. Although, if my mom has done her geneology correctly, I am a card-carrying Native American tribe member. My use of trickster and shaman comes from what I've read, heard, seen, about Native American culture, the pow-wows I've attended, and from the course I took on "minority literature" in which the authors were Black, Chicano, Native American.

And, I didn't have in mind only native american tribes; but thoughts of tribal customs in African, and other tribes outside the US.

My usage is "if the word fits, use it." Not in the least juridical.

Shar


> In electronic text communication, correspondents more likely speak of tribes in terms of symbols learned from other text formats. The shamans and tricksters described in many electronic forums are more likely those that inhabit anthropology texts and Casteneda’s fiction.
>
> In Invocation, Trudell speaks of tribes in terms of deoxyribonucleic acid. He chooses text that reflects his personal experience with the mutli-generational familial bonds, and bonds with places and with the elements of nature.
>
> One writer said Trudell’s Invocation speaks of all people as now living on an industrial reservation. In “Tribal Voice” and in his other works, Trudell paints a picture of people isolated from their family. Trudell suggests a family that not only includes the direct DNA family, but also as the DNA fabric of a living eco-systems that cooperates with the people in a symbiotic relationship.
>
> The term “tribe” is but a textual construct. Some card-carrying “tribal members” say the term is a symbolic marker of ideological reservation boundaries. From the outside looking in, “tribe” can mark a reservation inhabited by chiefs, shamans and tricksters. From inside the reservation, looking out, “tribe” marks the line beyond which people confuse the bonds of family and nature with fantasies of shamans and tricksters.
>
> As the biographical sketch of Trudell (http://www.johntrudell.com/jt_bio.html) suggests, poetry for him was a form of therapy that salved the wounds of a costly civil war. The war was one in which he was regarded as incivil, yet he alleges that he and his family were treated in a most incivil manner because of his civic involvement. As a salve, written and spoken language can serve as a medium that sooths the pain of abiding within reservation boundaries. It might also serve to facilitate interaction beyond the reservation boundary.
>
> The difference in “tribe” in the familial sense, and “tribe” in the sense of a band of refugees held together by a common need, might have implications for biological psychology. The familial tribe enjoys a more intact cognitive map. Disruptions of physical and social cognitive maps might cause the same patterns of hyperalertness, over-sensitivity, profound despair and attention deficits often associated with child abuse and neglect.
>
> Perhaps this all suggests why some people question casual use of the word “tribe” to describe a loose-knit conversation among practical strangers, and at the same time why “tribe” seems such a fitting description. Perhaps we are all displaced tribal members living on an industrial reservation. Being a neighbor on the reservation does not, however, in the legal since, comprise tribal membership.
>
>
> > INVOCATION
> >
> > We are from the Halluca Nation
> > We are the tribe that they can not see
> > We live on an industrial reservation
> >
> > We are the Halluca Nation
> > We have been called the Indian
> > We have been called Native American
> >
> > We have been called Hostile
> > We have been called Pagan
> > We have been called Militant
> > We have been called everything but who we are
> >
> > We are the Halluca Nation
> > The human beings
> > They can not see us, but we can see them
> >
> > We are the Halluca Nation
> > Our D.N.A. is of earth and sky
> > Our D.N.A. is of the past and the future
> >
> > We are the Halluca Nation
> > We are the evolution
> > The continuation
> >
> > We are the Halluca Nation
> >
> >
> > John Trudell
> >
> > http://www.johntrudell.com/jt_bio.html
> >
> > poetry stolen from: http://www.worldofpoetry.org/usop/faces13.htm


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