Iraqi’s society dates back to Abraham’s traditional and tribal ways. They, like most Middle Easterners and other tribal societies, do not act as individuals but as members of a larger group. While democracy is a youthful system it wasn’t until 1965 that the United States arrived to a complete form of democracy, allowing Africa-Americans to vote being non-democratic is part of Iraq’s six thousand year old culture, where much of the early mythology in the Bible traces its roots.

Born in Baghdad as a minority Christian, I came to America when I was ten. Balancing the act between tribalism and democracy was my major challenge, especially since tribalism is looked down upon.

Think about it. If you were asked to make a list of alternative lifestyles, I doubt tribal would be one of your top, or bottom, choices. I don’t blame you. When I looked up this subject in the library, the books I found taught one how to make bows, arrows and snow goggles. It talked about the dimensions of igloos and wigwams and how to dress if planning to stay a day or two in either. The rest of the books on tribes had on their covers men with feathers sticking out of their hair.

Not very appealing, I agree. And definitely not how I and many like me who are of Native American, Hispanic, Indian, African and European origins, live, although our homes can be called tribal since in the dictionary tribal is defined, amongst other things, as a collection of families descending from one ancestor. Or, a group of people sharing an occupation, interest, or habit.

The majority of people who immigrate to America, or are born first generation, live a similar lifestyle to that of their peers when dealing with the outside world, whether in schools or the work place. They face the same issues with regards to government and commerce. They also pursue similar forms of entertainment, such as the movie theaters, restaurants and concerts.

Perhaps the biggest difference between modern societies and tribal societies is the importance placed on kin. In most modern societies, kin outside the immediate circle of close relatives such as mother, father, husband, wife, son and daughter rarely play much of a role in each other’s lives and are usually only seen at family gatherings.

With tribes, it is often the intricate networks of relationships among kin that form the very fabric of their societies. Food gathering, political decision making, child rearing, inheritance of wealth, and other considerations are all affected by the kinship relationships among the people involved.

So specifically, what does the tribal way offer? How is it unique from a corporation or organization that looks out for the best interest of its employees and members? Well, the latter is void of the children and elders who are as essential to our spiritual growth as food and water is to our body.

In his book Beyond Civilization, Daniel Quinn describes a tribe as a social organization that facilitates making a living. He also writes that the tribal way has worked for millions of years, in contrast to the hierarchal way, which has brought us face to face with extinction after a mere ten thousand years.

One method that makes tribal societies effective is that the family is the place where all teachings are handed down from the grandparent, to the parent, and to the child. Elders are guides to the future, the leaders in the community. They are the storytellers of history; it is through their stories that a lesson is to be learned. They are role models for children, and play a very important part in their development. This is how a positive mental health is established for children, even the children yet to be born.

Children and elders provide a nurturing and educational day-to-day experience for everyone else, as one represents the past, while the other will one day represent the future. Both are sensitive yet independent thinkers, loving yet will speak their mind. The wisdom and innocence that they rub off on each other and those around them establishes the sense of compassion and responsibility that leads to a nonviolent society.

Tribal traditions and practices have tremendous contributions to civilization and modern philosophy, yet this awareness is often lacking in popular consciousness, and have often gone unrecognized, or been underrated by historians and social scientists. In Conversations with God: Book III (1998), where the author Neale Donald Walsch talks to God, in this case about small communities vs. large cities, God responds, “It is the mark of a primitive society to view regression as progress.”

As long as there is narrow or old material on tribal living, where members are portrayed as mostly dwellers of the desert or the jungle that dress in layers of clothing or walk around naked as they hunt for food, the rewarding side of this ancient tradition will be wasted. Alain de Benoist, a French philosopher and author, writes that peaceful modern societies which respect the individual evolved from age-old familistic ties.

The transition from band-type societies, through clan and tribal organizations, into nation-states was peaceful only when accomplished without disruption of the basic ties which link the individual to the larger society by a sense of a common history, culture and kinship. The sense of “belonging” to a nation by virtue of such shared ties promotes cooperation, altruism and respect for other members.

Today, much of the violence against US troops is triggered by the troops’ failure to understand culture-specific manners and practices in Iraq. If mainstream Western media recognized the rewards and not just the conflicts regarding tribal ways, which operate on a foundation of honor, respect and a sense of community, then cultures would become better acquainted and as a result, individuals will be led to stop the destructive acts that have terrorized both the East and the West.

To prevent further catastrophe people must view the East’s vision as a counterpoint to that of the West. And they must change their perceptions fast. Tribal societies have already become extinct or are at the verge of extinction in North America, Australia and in many Latin American countries. Evolution works not only at the level of species but also at the level of societies.

In an article published in July 2005 in Hiiraan Online, “Part III: Evolutionary Stress on Tribal Society” Abdishakur Jowhar MD notes that in California Indians outnumbered whites by 10 to 1 in 1848 less than a mere couple of centuries ago. Today in California Non-Indians outnumbers Indians by 120: 1 a reversal of the ratio 12 times over. In Australia the number of Aborigines is declining precipitously becoming extinct in many parts. The last Aborigine in the Tasmania State of Australia died in May 8, 1876. In India tribal societies has been transformed to what came to be known as scheduled tribes that are among the most desperate in that hierarchy obsessed nation. Many of them have become extinct and many others are on the endangered list. Wars and epidemics of newly introduced diseases fuelled the demise of these people.

Tribal societies came under stress due to several factors. The extension of commerce and military incursions on tribal land, to name a few, and the resettling of non-tribals amidst tribal populations had an impact, as did ideological coercion or persuasion to attract key members of the tribe into “mainstream” society. This led to many tribal communities becoming integrated while others who resisted were pushed into remote areas.

In the end, the land mass will remain. The people will vanish. The very same forces that caused the extinction of the North American Indian, the Aborigines of Australia and the tribes of Andaman and Nicobar islands of India will decimate the inhabitants of tribes who still survive.

Daniel Quinn looks to tribal societies as models for future societies because they exhibited 3 million years of societal evolution before being overtaken by the totalitarian agriculturalist. In hunter/gatherer tribes, there are no formal laws, only inherent practices that determine the identity of the tribe. Tribes do not write or invent their laws, but honor codes of conduct that arise from years of social evolution.

Quinn rejects the modern idea that there is one set moral standard for people to live by. Instead, he argues that the laws and customs that arise from tribe are sustainable and “right” in their own way because they work for the tribe. Quinn uses the phrase “cultural collapse” to describe the point of history that we are living through today. He states, “Tribal societies offer a tested way for people to live and work today as well as they ever did.”

How so? The tribal pattern of social interaction stress gender equality and respect for all members. It is built on a foundation of equality with respect for all life forms including plants and trees. There is a deep recognition of mutual dependence in nature and human society.

People are given respect and status according to their contribution to social needs but only while they are performing that particular function. A priest could be treated with great respect during a religious ceremony or a doctor revered during a medical consultation, but once such duties have been performed, the priest or doctor becomes equal to everyone else. Such a value-system is sustainable as long as the community is non-acquisitive and all the products of society are shared.

Myself, I was able to enjoy both the modern and tribal world once I was mature enough to distinguish between what they offered and how others viewed and judged them. What most people fail to understand is that literacy, education and individual choice cannot really change one’s tribal identity. Tribes are what they are. In my case, despite having happily lived like a modern woman on the outside, at home I happily shared a roof with my mother, my older brother, his wife and at that time their two children.

It’s natural for people to thwart the unfamiliar. So perhaps if you were to imagine a more modern tribal picture like of members wearing shorts and bikinis, who live beneath a square not round shaped roof, who eat Whoppers and put on lipstick while driving their cars, you would look at that lifestyle with a different perspective. And you might just make it one of your own.