Tribalism has been an inherent part of human history and it is not something that is peculiar to Nagas alone. There has always been competition between groups of humans in different ways. And fear of the ‘other’ is at the heart of tribalism.
There is evidence from cultural neuroscience that shows how our brains respond differently at an unconscious level simply at the sight of faces from other races or cultures, or tribes in the Naga context.
Humans regress to tribalism when they are afraid of the ‘other’. At a tribal level, people are more emotional and consequently less logical.
We all know and acknowledge the fact that tribalism is undoing Naga society today. Yet, we let tribalism bog us down. That is because we fear the ‘other’.
Fear is arguably as old as life. Fear is deeply rooted in our core psychological and biological being. Fear is a very strong tool that can blur humans’ logic and change their behavior. When we fear the ‘other’, we resort to tribalism.
This is an evolutionary trait. Thus, tribalism, fueled by fear, is a biological loophole that many ‘leaders’ bank on, tapping into our fears and tribal instincts. The typical pattern is to give the other tribes a different label than us, and say they are going to harm us or our resources, and to turn the other group into a ‘concept’.
While building tribal walls between ‘us’ and ‘them’, some leaders have managed very well to create virtual tribes that despise each other without even knowing each other.