Image: Wikimedia Commons

tribe

Human social group

EntityQ133311

Subclass of: ethnic group
, social group
, polity

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflicting theoretical understandings of social and kinship structures, and also reflecting the problematic application of this concept to extremely diverse human societies. Its concept is often contrasted by anthropologists with other social and kinship groups, being hierarchically larger than a lineage or clan, but smaller than a chiefdom, ethnicity, nation or state. These terms are similarly disputed. In some cases, tribes have legal recognition and some degree of political autonomy from national or federal government, but this legalistic usage of the term may conflict with anthropological definitions.

Overview

All data

52 statements · 23% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Different from: quasi-state
tribe
Said to be the same as: tribe
Main Wikidata property: tribe

On other databases

41 identifiers linking tribe across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

23%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 14, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). tribe (Q133311). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/tribe-Q133311