Detribalized

/diːˈtraɪbəlaɪzd/ adjective

Definition

Describing people or communities whose tribal structures, identities, and traditional ways of life have been broken down or dissolved.

Etymology

Past participle of detribalize used as an adjective. Reflects colonial-era thinking about indigenous peoples and modernization.

Kelly Says

The term 'detribalized' was once used as if it described an inevitable, natural process, but modern scholarship recognizes it as describing something done to peoples—a form of cultural destruction with devastating consequences.

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