"Tribalism is governed by a force so motivationally powerful that it predicts more of your behavior than your race, class, nationality, or religion. The formal analysis of this incredible phenomenon has only just begun, but the emerging science reveals that these factors are mere subjugates to our primal instinct to be a member of a tribe. This “Tribe Drive” is an ancient adaptation that has been a prerequisite for survival for 99.9 percent of our species’ evolutionary history. It is a critical piece of cognitive machinery—honed by millions of years of evolution—that gave us the ability to navigate, both cooperatively and competitively, increasingly complex social landscapes. But now that our species spans billions across the globe, does this adaptation continue to serve us, or is it mismatched to its environment? In other words, what happens when humans become either tribeless or destructively consumed by tribalism?"
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"So next time you hear a raving demagogue counseling hatred for other, slightly different groups of humans, for a moment at least see if you can understand his problem: He is heeding an ancient call that—however dangerous, obsolete, and maladaptive it may be today—once benefited our species."— CARL SAGAN AND ANN DRUYAN, 1993

There is a reason birds of a feather stick together, that fish swim in schools, and that gnus migrate in large herds. It increases the survival chances for the group, if not necessarily the individuals within it. So it is with people. We do not have the canines of the saber-tooth, the bulk and muscle of the bear, the speed of the leopard, the poison of the snake or many of the other tools available to creatures eager to dine on the special meat. Even our relatively advanced gray cells were not enough to consistently keep us off the dinner menu. But getting together helped, big-time. E pluribus unum, baby. And grouping together allowed us to hunt in packs, which was much more effective than hunting individually. So, how did we shift from independent contractors to company people?

It is obvious to any observer that we are a tribal species today. Samson looks at the elements that make up this trait. He wrestles with the lion of the issue, why are we the way we are?
And how what he calls our innate tribal drive, which may have served us well on the savannah, serves us less well in the modern world.

"The core of the mismatch is that modern society has made us more physically isolated by decreasing our social support; all the while it has made us more mentally unstable by increasing social pressure, tricking us into thinking that low grade online and institutional social interaction is good enough to live a healthy and fulfilling life. In this sense, the people who dwelled in the first tribes were not challenged as much as we are today. Their units were glued together in a common struggle for survival, not the weak ideological grounds many use as the foundation to their tribal social identities today."

Samson begins by looking at how our tribal drive causes more trouble than it solves. Then heads off into the history of how human organization evolved. For example, before there could be tribes there had to be camps. (The People’s Front of Judea?) This material is fascinating, as he builds up the structure of prehistoric human grouping. There are organizational layers that needed to develop and join together in order to make up early human tribes. He goes into what early human needs were, the reason for being of groups, the need for food, shelter, and avoidance of incest. And beyond that, there was a need to cope with ill fortune. Stuff happens, and your group can survive such stuff more robustly if it is larger. Thus tribes, which still carry within them the need for assurance about who is trustworthy. This leads to a need for some sort of recognition mechanism. When a group gets beyond the magical Dunbar number, how do we know if someone is safe? If they are one of us and not one of a potentially threatening them.

"The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship. . . . Putting it another way, it’s the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar." — ROBIN DUNBAR, 1996

Well, you can see how this might be endlessly fascinating. And it is. Tribalism is what allowed us to survive as a species. When the going got tough, the tough formed tribes.

He traces the steps that were needed to achieve tribe-dom, and looks at how they functioned once established. He offers considerable intel on how tribalism changed over time, how it developed diverse forms, how we developed ways to tell tribal friend from foe without knowing them personally. Great stuff. I worked my poor mouse and keyboard down to bare metal copying passages from this book.

Part 2 (of two) refocuses on the contemporary. How our need for tribal connection impacts our lives. He talks about how increasing class separation has resulted in the well-to-do being able to buy the social support they need, while us plebes have had to scramble to make do with our declining slices of the national pie. He offers sundry ways in which we can mitigate the impact the world has had on us, how it has deprived us of our tribal needs, primarily of personal contact with a trusted bunch. Samson looks at ways in which we can find a better balance, offering some real-world examples.

There were several times, I was pulled up short by Samson’s social analysis. He quotes Robert Putnam on a decline in family togetherness over the ten year period between 1985 and 1994. Yet he does not seem to consider it worth noting that this corresponds roughly with the Age of Reagan, and a turn away from community and toward the individual. He also does not include any significant discussion on the general decline in religious affiliation, which surely would be relevant to stresses on tribal identification.

A particularly egregious example of both-siderism entails looking at the different responses to a handwriting expert’s analysis of Donald Trump’s signature. The entirety of that can be found under a spoiler tag in EXTRA STUFF, so you can see for yourself. In focusing on how different groups reacted to the analysis, he does zero follow-up to look at whether one group or another turned out, based on observable real-world facts, to have had a better handle on things. That did not kill the book for me, but it was a red flag.

It is often the case that social scientists do a decent job of examining society, ferreting out specific elements that might be causing this or that bad result. But it is just as often the case that the solutions that are proposed fail the political sniff test. Not political as in party affiliation, but political in the sense that any social change has to be applied in a medium that is comprised of human beings. On the other hand, there are myriad nuggets of information in Our Tribal Future that enrich the reading experience, like his look at the basis of ethics, and a dive on how The Dunbar Number came to be.

For many, these days, much of our political discourse appears to be driven more by tribal identity than by rational consideration of policy merits or disbenefits. I was able to glean some significant bits of wisdom to apply to this from Samson’s discussion of tribal psychology, but I had hoped he would have done more with it. Where he does go is to examine some ways of social organization that offer opportunities for improving our lot.

He is wise in noting that community-level engagement is the best way to not only effect direct change, but to gain links to other nearby people, creating or reinforcing social cohesion, and mental health. But then he ignores what might be done for national issues like abortion, national tax policy, national defense and health care coverage and availability. It is a narrower focus, which is certainly Samson’s right, but there seems to be a pretense that local arrangements exist in a bubble, unimpacted by the larger world.

You may have heard of the uncanny valley. The expression refers to the creeped-out feeling one gets when seeing/interacting with an animation or robot that is intended to be very human-like, but is not quite there. (Ron DeSantis?) Likewise, David Samson’s Our Tribal Future tries to be an accessible, pop-science look at a very significant element of contemporary life, particularly in the political sphere. He mostly succeeds when writing about our deep history. But there is some drift into a more academic presentation that shifts towards the science and a bit too far away from the pop. It is when he tries to look past what is to what could be, that the Philistines of reality swarm him. So, if you are academically inclined, by all means, dive in. There is much of value here. But if the hint of textbook makes your blood run cold, you may want to explore elsewhere. A compromise might be to take in Samson’s wonderful presentation on human historical self-organization, then see how you feel moving forward. But if you are looking for a fully accessible pop-science read, you may find yourself in an uncanny valley.

"When we grow, develop, and live in a world where everything is geared toward the individual, how can we help but view the world with a more narcissistic lens? When we live with other people, share resources within the environment, and work through problems together, the outcome is an individual that is less self-centered and more psychologically flexible."

Review posted - 08/18/23

Publication date – 05/30/23

I received an ARE of Our Trtibal Future from St. Martin’s Press in return for a fair review, and becoming a member of their group. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

As someone with an anthropology degree why we do the things we do always fascinates me. Samson takes a look at how and why we are geared towards tribalism and the pros and cons of it in society today. Then presents a way for us to use that for the good for the future. It's an interesting read for sure.

This is an incredibly well-researched book about society and community. I was intrigued by this book in the context of the political polarization happening in the U.S. and after reading this book, I feel like I have a better understanding why we form "in-groups" and "out-groups" and the grounding in this from evolution as well as anthropology. I gained a new perspective on Leavitt Town - suburbs as a way to deal with (white) men returning from war by keeping them in a "controllable" space to contain the population. He also talks about loneliness by isolation and the negative physical and mental health impacts of this "disease" - which the Surgeon General is now writing extensively about. What I love about this book is he does not just lay out the challenges - he also identifies solutions and reflections that each of us can take to reduce social isolation (from co-housing and other ideas). Another part of the book I valued is about self-determination theory - there are three foundational elements to finding meaning at work -- 1) we want to feel competent in the work we are doing 2) that our life is being lived authentically and 3) that we feel socially connected. This is helpful advice to give to all of us and particularly for the generation just entering the workforce or graduating from college. The author also shares personal stories throughout that add depth and meaning to the content he is covering. I recommend this book. A very interesting read!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC and I left this honest review voluntarily.

Contempt Is The Dissolver Of Unions. Yes, that is a particularly memorable line from the book - and a warning. Here, Samson discusses the history, biology, and sociology of our "Tribe Drive" - ongoing and apparently bleeding edge research in all three fields - and shows how it has brought us to where we are... and how we can better utilize it to achieve a more peaceable and prosperous future for all. Yes, some of this book is a touch... out there... for some, such as Samson's admitting to basing some of his thinking of this topic on his use of psychedelic mushrooms, peyote, and similar compounds. And yes, there are things here that partisans left and right will likely complain about - some legitimately, some less so. And yes, in ultimately recommending a form of at minimum confederation of federated governments - if not outright anarchism, which he discusses without ever using the term, yet never precludes that the groups he discusses could become official "governments" - perhaps Samson is even a touch idealistic. And yet, the documentation is solid at around 20% of the text (not counting footnote discussions at the end of each chapter, which may bump that to around 22-25% of the text). Further, the book lays bare in scientific terms that which I've largely understood and have been advocating at various points for the last 15 years or so, through my own active political activism days and into my efforts to promote reading and literacy now.

Overall an intriguing, thought out book and one that adds greatly to the overall conversation around groups, governments, coalitions, and politics, and thus one that anyone who seeks to truly understand and use these concepts truly needs to read and understand. Very much recommended.

Our Tribal Future informs us about the human nature of forming groups and how this need influences our behavior.  The word tribalism often brings about a bad connotation.  However, tribalism is a successful survival mechanism that is part of human evolution.  Samson explains our instinct to band together in tribes has brought humans together in remarkable ways.  With a complicated subject, Samson has broken down this complex subject into simpler sections with plenty of examples.  I was very intrigued by the guiding question of " How do we trust people who aren't family?"  When we feel like we are in a group with a commonality, humans can accomplish amazing things, but what brings us together as a group can also make us feel differently about other groups and can lead to hatred of anyone perceived as an other or outsider.  With this revelation, Samson also gives us the tools to look into ourselves to see our affiliations and how they are affecting our perceptions.  I enjoyed the  information on building your own tribe and the benefits of living in a tribe.  
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Our Tribal Future by David R. Samson was excellently-researched, well-written, and very enjoyable book.

The book is both interesting and educational.
This is an extremely well researched book.
I’ve always been fascinated with this sort of stuff.
And if I’m being honest this opened my eyes to a whole new world.
The science, philosophy, ethics, and history of tribalism in very compelling and intriguing to me.
A very engaging and enjoyable book and one that I highly recommend reading.
The author has done a wonderful job bringing these ideas together and narrating their evolution while providing a comprehensive read for further reading.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this eARC