A few weeks back I read Sebastian Junger’s Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. This wasn’t too long of a read, but full of interesting research, history, and assessment on modern society. I’m working through developing my dissertation topic right now and one of the themes involves trauma so this is one of many things I’m exploring related to recovering from pain and trauma. There’s a large dimension of the book that deals with dynamics of post-traumatic stress disorder, but there’s a lot more.
Junger draws on his experiences writing and covering war to make an argument that contemporary society has more to do with some of the concerning realities of suicide and trauma than just war itself. He traces two themes through several centuries – that “tribes” always have had an instinct to protect one another as well as to care for one another. Belonging is what drives people and ultimately what heals them as well – yet western society has drifted especially from paradigms of community that facilitate this belonging.
It was quite interesting to read some of the history of how people in the 16th, 17th, and perhaps even 18th century dealt with the “migration” of many people of European ancestry to the Native American Tribes around them and their way of life. The author notes that it was always western oriented whites leaving to join the Native American way of life, never the other way around. The author traces this to the fundamental dynamics involved – Native American tribes nurtured a more egalitarian community in which people were protected and provided for with everyone doing their part. He notes the severe penalties and consequences for individuals taking “more than their fair share” in the community. It would often result in beating or death, because that kind of behavior was a threat to the whole. It’s an interesting read, especially in a day in age where everyone is looking after themselves.
