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Comment by SideburnsOfDoom | Hacker News Reader

I would say that someone who is _not_ tribal would be more likely to live in a larger town or city, have more formal education, speaks a "foreign" language such as English, French or Arabic, may have parents who come from different villages, and even different different ethnic backgrounds (Wikipedia lists about 9 local languages and similar number of ethnic groups in Ghana) (1).

Someone who _is_ tribal is well, not detribalised (2). And is able to say which specific tribe (geographic area, language, customs etc) they were raised in.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detribalization

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> I would say that someone who is _not_ tribal would be more likely to live in a larger town or city, have more formal education

Everyone in Ghana with a formal education speaks at least 1 tribal languages. It’s a requirement for graduation that you learn a “foreign” language of a tribe that is not your own. So typically, you will speak 2 local languages.

Learning a local language is also a requirement for citizenship.

> And is able to say which specific tribe (geographic area, language, customs etc) they were raised in.

All citizens are required to list an ancestral village on official applications such as tax information, passports, nation IDs and bank accounts.

There’s no good comparison, but think it like the EU. You can live in London for 30 years, but you’re still French.

Your comments on the topic are really interesting. You could open a blog on it. Most Europeans have zero ideas about how things really are working in Africa, besides a few stereotypes.

Ha, I couldn't. Outside of my little segment of West Africa, I have no idea how anything works either.

So an American who does not speak a foreign language, who lives in a small town, who has never been outside the county he was born in, and whose parents are from the same county, can be referred to as “tribal”?

You can probably use the term clan as in Scottish clan in place of tribe.

I use this comparison too but I’m curious are the Scott clans more like family groups? Do you intermarry within the same clan?

From what I understand a clan would be even more tight-knit not intermarry but marry into the clan. A woman from clan Campbell marries a man in clan MacDonald she would now be a part of MacDonald.

A tribe or band could bring in someone not necessarily by marriage alone. It's a common thing all over the world whatever name it is given; clan, tribe, band, caste.

There are probably some differences between all those terms but an anthropologist would have to explain it not me.

> and whose parents are from the same county

With the vast majority of Americans, a few generations back the ancestors are are immigrants, and they can usually tell you from where.

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