The Tribal Imagination

Civilization and the savage mind

by Robin Fox, Ph.D., D.Sc.

The Republican Brain

Are political differences inborn or learned? Are Romney and Obama more alike than different? Perhaps Jefferson and Pavlov, with the help of Eysenck, can tell us something? Read More

The Python Diet: No Weight-Loss Diet Works—Except Mine

What about our evolution makes it unlikely that weight-loss diets will work? Can the python help? Read More

Why Do We Dream? And How Do We Do It?

We spend a third of our lives asleep and most of that dreaming. What are dreams for? How do they work? Read More

I Must Be Dreaming! The Conscious Unconscious

When we are dreaming the unconscious is supposed to be in charge. But what if we can consciously take charge of the process? Read More

Sexy Santas: A Lot Like Christmas?

We regularly bemoan the commercialization of Christmas, but perhaps there is a real meaning to the feasting, giving, and Sexy Santas that we have missed. Read More

Male Bonding and Female Strategies

Men know the pull of it; women put up with it; do we really need it? Read More

London's Burning: Is Bootcamp the Solution?

In the rush to diagnose the London riots the expressive tribal element in them has been overlooked and the remedies in consequence fall short. Read More

Kissing Cousins: On Mediogamy

Thirty states ban cousin marriage, but this was the norm for most of our evolutionary history, and here we are: it worked. Read More

Two Cheers for Teenage Mothers

What is the problem in the problem of teenage pregnancy and whose problem is it? Read More

The Meaning of Death: East and West

We all face the ultimate gift of consciousness: we know that we are going to die. Even if the young treat death as an option to be taken up later, the rest of us must reasonably ask: "Why?" Read More

Tribal Weddings and Democratic Stability

If anyone needs proof that tribal emotions still lie just under the surface of our civilized veneer then the recent worldwide obsession with the royal wedding should be convincing. In The Tribal Imagination I had such events in mind when writing of Auguste Comte's notion that reason was not enough as a basis for social order: we were not wholly rational creatures. Read More

Tribal Weddings and Democratic Stability

Oedipus Not So Complex

I had promised to handle the paradox of teenage pregnancy and the horrible effects of industrial civilization on the tribal female life cycle, but I am beginning to sound preachy. Read More

Puberty Too Soon?

Numerous "causes" have been suggested for the alarming drop in the age of menarche in girls. None of them but one seems to make any sense, and that one is ignored, but it can literally shed light on the problem. Read More

What Is a "Tribal Society?"

We are often told dismissively that North Africa and the Middle East (and Afghanistan and Pakistan and most of Africa) are "tribal societies," but unless we understand it, this doesn't tell us much. Read More

"Never Go Against the Family, Fredo!"

Part of the fascination of the Godfather series was the "family against the world" theme which so fascinates us. Is some of this is because we are fundamentally tribal creatures who at some deep level prefer the tribal way of living? What is happening in Egypt and Libya is also happening inside our heads. Read More