Truly Tribe? A Caution On Words
In the past few months, like many of you, I came across Seth Godin’s very provocative and challenging book entitled “Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us”. Having lived as a white guy among indigenous cultures for several years (often where I was among the minority in numbers), I realized how quickly I reacted to the use of the term “tribe”. Then recently the launch of Missional Tribe further consider the term.
My first real encounter with tribal culture came while living on the mission camp in Winfield, BC. At the time, the majority of our staff were Polynesian islanders, some acting chiefs for their villages even while living in Canada. While I won’t go into detail now, my stereotypes, assumptions and even romantic notions of what a “tribe” was was challenged. During this time I also began to explore the history and culture of the various First Nations peoples of North America, connecting with people like Richard Twiss, Anita Keith and many others who have become dear friends, changing my worldview forever. Today I live and serve in an inner city community that is primarily First Nations, with a significant Eritrean & Ethiopian communities as the second largest group. While by no means an expert or even an insider, I have a growing understanding and experience of tribal dynamics.
It is because of this that I find myself very sensitive to the use of terms in popular culture that have very deep meaning to indigenous peoples. While I was and am thrilled by the community forming here at Missional Tribe, I will admit that my first reaction was chagrin at the term. It got me thinking. In the end, I was not overly bothered by the use of the term. After all, with some Celtic blood in my veins, I know that tribal culture is not totally foreign to white folks. Further, the people of God in the Old Testament functioned as tribes as well, making for some formational tradition for us today.
However, I think it is critical that as we engage in conversation here and elsewhere, using terms to develop and embrace an identity (and I truly believe Missional Tribe chose the name for identity, not merely branding), we must be mindful of our colonial history. It can be too easy for us to thoughtlessly co-opt aspects of other cultures or traditions- be that indigenous cultures or historical church traditions.
Again, this is not a rebuke or correction, but a gentle caution. What do you think?
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Brother Maynard on 13 Jan 2009 at 8:35 pm #
Jamie,
- wrt the above text, I think it’s buried in the theme someplace that’s not user-editable by default. I’ll look into it and see if I can remove it or make a way for you to change it. We’ve also set up a tech support system for requests like this. http://missionaltribe.org/helpdesk/
- I love the blog theme. Strange, I’ve seen them all and yet when I saw this one on your blog (and I’ve done this a few times with a couple other themes), I wondered where it came from and how you got it uploaded! My bad memory I guess!
- regarding the use of the term (getting around to the subject of your post!), we actually did seek some advice from a trusted first-nations leader on the vocabulary. he’s well-respected and I think you know him, but his advice was that no matter what we do we’re likely to offend someone with language… so not to worry about it.
- our use of the term “tribe” is as you suggest simply a collective noun intended to imply community and affinity amongst ourselves. We’ve used it a little, but have intentionally stayed away from any temptation to take any kind of “tribal theme” right through the site for these reasons. Perhaps we should consider a page explaining where the name came from.
best,
Jamie Arpin-Ricci on 13 Jan 2009 at 9:02 pm #
Hey Bro May,
Thanks for the tech advice. If you come up with anything, let me know. I gave up after 2 hours of searching.
I believe Sonja mentioned the First Nations leader you mentioned. He is right about offending someone, though I think “Tribe” in this context is still a good choice. I saw “elder” used instead of “instigator” on Twitter today, which would be a bigger concern for me.
A page explaining the name would be great!
Peace,
Jamie
Peggy Brown on 14 Jan 2009 at 12:44 am #
Thoughtful post, Jamie. I spoke at length with our First Nations friend–about both the use of “tribe” as well as “elder”–and I think that we need to be willing to be reminded to be culturally sensitive as often as someone is “pinched” by the Holy Spirit.
We have done some significant explaining of who we are and how we arrived at this place and time and all that. Take a look here: http://missionaltribe.org/about/
We were also talking today about trying to make some of the things in the Tribal Wisdom section a little more visible. There’s a wealth of information hidden in there….
Shalom,
Peggy
Sonja Andrews on 14 Jan 2009 at 5:56 am #
Hi Jamie,
I love that you’ve brought this up in a more public setting where all can discuss it. I’d also love to hear what some of the specific cultural dynamics are that give you misgivings about the terms “tribe” and “elder.” You serve in a such unique ministry setting and have a great perspective that not many of us have.
What I mean is … I do understand that we (northern European caucasians) with a colonial history of superiority, do need to be sensitive to the power dynamics of how we go about interacting with various groups. But I’d love to hear stories of your interaction with the groups that you serve among and how you’ve seen this played out. Why do you find this such a sensitive subject? How has it come to be raised in your consciousness (to use that old 60’s term)? What made it spark?
Does that make sense?
Jamie Arpin-Ricci on 14 Jan 2009 at 8:50 am #
Hey Peggy,
While I appreciate that you made the effort to contact a First Nations leader, I wonder if it might have been better to reference a wider cross-section. Again, I affirm the (careful) use of “Tribe” (though I would caution against an over use of “tribal”). However, in the sections you linked me to the term “elder” is used a great deal. This does concern me.
In those sections it is clearly stated that the term “elder” is an “anthropological” use, not referencing the concept of church elder. Among most indigenous peoples, the use of the title “elder” is never used lightly and never, ever self-appointed. We dealt (and continue to deal with) this very issue within YWAM Western Canada. One thing we have learned in the process is how easily we co-opt cultural ideas or practices and utilize them for their metaphoric value. With the church’s history with colonialism, this is something we should be VERY careful to avoid.
To that end, I would recommend against the use of “elder” and be very careful about any tribal analogies, etc. Yes, no matter what you do, some will be offended. However, we needlessly offend some who represent those we most need to embrace? Just my two cents.
Peace,
Jamie
Jamie Arpin-Ricci on 14 Jan 2009 at 9:03 am #
Hey Sonja,
Wow, those are great, but really big questions. So much of it comes simply from relationship with indigenous peoples. And too much of it comes from my own mistakes. Living with the Polynesian community in BC was a real gift to me. I learned so very much from them.
Here in our neighbourhood, being that we are a minority as white people, we find that our neighbours have been more willing to talk openly than when we are in the majority settings. One thing we have heard is about the way white people (even well intentioned ones) use First Nations culture as a novelty. For example, it is not uncommon to find white Christians who affirm the use of cultural dress & dance for First Nations believers, claiming it as an affirmation of their God-given identity. However, when pushed on worldview issues (such as conceptions of restorative justice) and their implications on our worldview, we are often dismissive. In other words, many First Nations people we work with express a frustration (at best) at how their culture is used more out of novelty than truly honour intentions.
Further, there is an almost amused frustration with our romantic notions about their culture (i.e. the mystic people). A Samoan friend, a chief to his people and a missionary here in Canada, has explained the tribal dynamics of his culture to me on many occasions. It can be remarkably hierarchical, where the chief and elders authority is rarely questioned. This grew out of a necessity given their history and context. He gets a kick out of how white people romanticize the tribe. Elders, on the other hand, are people to be deeply honoured. The term is not used lightly, offending them when it used out of functional description or metaphorical convenience.
As I said to Peggy, you won’t be able to make everyone happy with your choice of names. However, I would fear that this might needlessly alienate some who would have much to offer us as a community. Again, I think “tribe” can and should be used, always being sensitive. “Elder”, in my opinion, is too loaded, both culturally and in respect to church leadership. I would simply avoid using it.
I can give more examples if necessary. I just don’t want it to come across as a critical attack on MT.
Peace,
Jamie
Brother Maynard on 14 Jan 2009 at 9:44 am #
Apprecieate the explanations, Jamie.
The term ‘elder’ came up I think almost as a tongue-in-cheek term that stuck around a bit back in our discussions in November, iirc. None of us are particularly invested in it or married to it in any way - it was just a functional way of saying ‘eldest’ in the sense of ’showed up first,’ which is about all we were trying to say. We’re also concerned about the church-related baggage that the term has, having invested it with positional authority that isn’t always there in some cultural uses where elders are respected simply for being elder.
It’s something we should perhaps have dispensed with before the site launch. As I say, since nobody is invested in it for positional or any other reasons, we’ll probably be moving away from it very soon and replace it with the term ‘instigators’ or something similar, which for us was near-synonymous at the time.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci on 14 Jan 2009 at 9:51 am #
Hey Bro May,
Good to hear. I think it will be helpful in the long run. I appreciate the openness here to discuss things like this.
Peace,
Jamie
Peggy Brown on 14 Jan 2009 at 12:01 pm #
Hello, Jamie.
I can certainly appreciate your perspective and the experiences of those whose stories you have told. I talked with RT because he and his wife are part of my weekly “house church” community. My missional experience is from living among Asian hill tribe groups, Thai and Hawaiian/Polynesians.
It is my earnest prayer that the Holy Spirit will continue to move in and through us to use our feeble attempts to “instigate” this community to build the Kingdom, that we will all continue to approach each other with love and respect and humility, and that the love of Jesus in us will cover a multitude of sins — both of omission and commission — as we make our way on this journey into liminality so that we may come through it to experience the joy and the chaos that is communitas.
Much love to you, brother.
Peggy