Sebastian Junger Tribe Summary

Imagine inhabiting a piece of land long enough for you to live and experience the same culture and life as your ancestors. To inhabit a place that you not only admire but that you also worship, just for it to be taken from you out of nowhere by people who look at the land you call home as a way to get money. Tribe explores history along with anthropology and psychological perspectives. Sebastian Junger examines a sufficient number of concepts related to the term “tribe,” from Native American culture and traditions, to experiencing tragedy with your community, and to soldiers who have PTSD. Junger portrays the meaning of tribe throughout the book as loyalty, one’s sense of belonging to something, doing something more significant than oneself, and being given the opportunity find purpose in your community. Junger begins Tribe by comparing Native American culture to American culture— the stark contrast between the two is how the Natives value their intimacy and togetherness much more than Americans. Americans otherwise referred to as Western civilization, have shown to be more focused on being independent and making more money as an individual rather than working with their community toward a …show more content…
The Native’s land was taken over by people who wanted to sell it or use it to their advantage, not because it held any meaning to them as it did to the Natives. “They often expressed astonishment that land could be sold or negotiated through treaties... land was not a source of private profit but life, including the life of the spirits. Some lands were also sacred as they bore the graves of the dead” (Eck). The land that the Natives lived on was more than a place to habituate; it was abundant in Native culture and