Us and them : understanding your tribal mind

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Title:

Us and them : understanding your tribal mind

Author:

Berreby, David.

ISBN:

9780316090308

9780316154987

Personal Author:

Berreby, David.

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Little, Brown and Company, c2005.

Physical Description:

x, 370 p. ; 25 cm.

Contents:

1. "That's our biggest difference" -- 2. "There are few questions more curious than this" -- 3. Counting and measuring -- 4. Birds of a feather -- 5. Mind sight and kind sight -- 6. Looking for the codes -- 7. How mind makes world -- 8. Inventing tradition in Oklahoma, or what I did on my summer vacation -- 9. Them, we burn -- 10. "Our common humanity makes us weep" -- 11. No humans involved -- 12. Don't be a stranger -- 13. Hazings and conversions -- 14. The heads on the poles -- 15. Species of Darwinism.

Abstract:

"In this book, David Berreby shows how science tackles questions of group identity. Drawing on new findings from anthropology to neuroscience, he argues that this "tribal" sense is a part of human nature, expressing itself in every aspect of life." "We can't live without our tribal sense. It tells us who we are and how we should behave. It frees us from the narrow confines of the self, linking us to others and the past and the future. Some condemn this instinct, as if it were only a source of evil. Others celebrate it, as if loyalty and faith were never misused. David Berreby describes a third alternative: how we can accept and understand our inescapable tribal mind."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Group identity.

Social psychology.

Psychology.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168020382525	305 B533U 2005	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Why do we see these divisions? Why do we care about them so much? Why do we kill and die for them? This is the stuff of news headlines. How has a nation gone from peaceful coexistence to genocide? How does social status affect your health? Why are teenagers willing to kill themselves in hazing rituals in order to belong to a fraternity or social group? How do terrorists learn not to care about the lives of those they attack?

Us and Them gets at the heart of these profound questions by looking at their common root in human nature. Politics, culture, and economics play their parts, but its the human mind that makes them possible, and thats the focus of Us and Them . Were not born with a map of human kinds; each person makes his own and learns to fight for it.

This is a crucial subject that touches all of our lives in ways both large and small, obvious and subtle. Human-kind thinkingwhether beneficial or destructiveis part of human nature, as David Berrebys brilliant book reveals.