Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good

This uneven debut by evolutionary anthropologist Samson explores the evolution and consequences of tribalism. Contending that humans have an innate “instinct to belong to a nested group,” Samson suggests this “tribal drive” developed as people began living in larger communities and needed a way to decide whom to trust beyond one’s kin. He describes how tribes evolved from the earliest bands of hunter-gatherers to online social networks and highlights the fascinating social developments that arose along the way, as when he suggests that “reactive aggression” likely decreased as humans developed language, even as language enabled the proliferation of premeditated violence and conspiracy. Samson also addresses, if too briefly, tribalism’s role in fueling bigotry and political violence, calling the Chinese Cultural Revolution’s brutality against suspected dissidents the “grandest experiment in ideologically driven political tribalism the world has ever known.” The anthropology stimulates, but the author loses his way as his focus shifts to the future, delivering unconvincing exhortations to thwart tribalism’s excesses by forming a universal “metatribe” and making woo-woo calls for humans to “sacrifice all tribes... upon the altar of the one, single human tribe.” The dubious conclusion drags down an otherwise revealing examination of group identification. (Apr.)