ABSTRACT
The concept of tribe is undoubtedly a problematic one – vague in its initial formulation, overextended in the kind of groupings included within its orbit, exploited by those, colonialists and others, who wish to stress the alleged primitiveness of local peoples and the divisions among them, and critically and negatively analyzed by many political activists and social scientists, who claim that its continued use will serve only to foster the negative trends they wish to counter.
