Whats the difference between tribes and ethnicities?

[Josquius]

This is a question that has come to me lately. Just what is the difference between these two terms?
They seem to be very close but...they're not.
Sure in the Afghan/Arab/Berber context tribes are sub-groups within the ethnicities but in Africa tribes seem to be able to be just as big as ethnicities...you see mention of tribes more often in Africa than ethnic groups even.

Anyone have any clue on this stuff?
Its all rather complicated...

[Slargos]

Ethnicities are tribes that have attained a certain degree of civilisation.

This is why you will never see anyone talking about african ethnicities.

[Malthus]

This is a question that has come to me lately. Just what is the difference between these two terms?
They seem to be very close but...they're not.
Sure in the Afghan/Arab/Berber context tribes are sub-groups within the ethnicities but in Africa tribes seem to be able to be just as big as ethnicities...you see mention of tribes more often in Africa than ethnic groups even.

Anyone have any clue on this stuff?
Its all rather complicated...

Complicated by the fact that people use the terms for many different things.

Anthropologically, in some classification systems a "tribe" is a form of social organization less organized than a "chieftanship" or "state" - one based on real (or ficticious) descent from a common ancestor.  This is not necessarily true of the term "ethnicity". A person can share an "ethnicity" with someone else based on other factors than real or ficticious common descent (though that remains a popular one).

Colloquially, it can mean the same as "ethnicity".

[PDH]

Depends on what is being talked about.  Tribes often refer to a political unit, of varying size, that is often related though some sort of (possibly fictive) kinship system.  An Ethnic group is a more potentially fuzzy term linking members of a cultural/linguistic group (which may include multiple tribes) into a larger entity socially.

So, Slargos is a member of the Meathead Tribe, but he is also a member of the Irrational Skinhead Ethnic group as well.  Simple enough?

[DisturbedPervert]

Penis gourds.

[Slargos]

Depends on what is being talked about.  Tribes often refer to a political unit, of varying size, that is often related though some sort of (possibly fictive) kinship system.  An Ethnic group is a more potentially fuzzy term linking members of a cultural/linguistic group (which may include multiple tribes) into a larger entity socially.

So, Slargos is a member of the Meathead Tribe, but he is also a member of the Irrational Skinhead Ethnic group as well.  Simple enough?

Stop it, you're making me blush. 

[garbon]

When two tribes go to war...!

[saskganesh]

tribes are a political entity, while ethnicities are not.

tribes are usually composed of an ethnicity, while an ethnicity could be composed of several tribes.

[Josquius]

hmm, the idea that tribes are more based on ideas of (mostly imaginary) kinship makes sense- the Kenyan girl I briefly went out with called her friends (from the same tribe) her sisters and her aunt was her mother and...crazy stuff.
I'm getting more onto the POV though that when something is a tribe and when something is a ethnicity these days is entirely just self-definition though.

[saskganesh]

that POV is fuzzy thinking. it's like conflating gang membership with a certain style of clothing.

[Malthus]

hmm, the idea that tribes are more based on ideas of (mostly imaginary) kinship makes sense- the Kenyan girl I briefly went out with called her friends (from the same tribe) her sisters and her aunt was her mother and...crazy stuff.
I'm getting more onto the POV though that when something is a tribe and when something is a ethnicity these days is entirely just self-definition though.

May be the result of a different kinship terminology system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship_terminology

For example, in "Hawaiian kinship" (not restricted to Hawaii - that's just the name attached to the term) all relations of the same generation as one's biological parents are referred to as "mother" or "father" and all cousins as "brother" or "sister".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_kinship

[PDH]

Sounds like generational kinship terminology to me.

Fictive kinship is not "imaginary" in the way that Seige imagines he is not an arab or that Mart imagines that gay news is worth talking about, it is invented but nonetheless a very real and important part of social interaction...

[Drakken]

When two tribes go to war...!

[Syt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLHK2h8EBQ
The long video version with the Nixon intro.