verb
- to cause (a person or group) to lose tribal identity, customs, or social structure; to assimilate into a non-tribal society
Usage: chiefly British spelling (American: detribalize); often used in historical or anthropological contexts; can carry critical connotations when referring to forced cultural change
Examples
- Colonial policies aimed to detribalise indigenous populations.
- The government's detribalisation programs disrupted traditional ways of life.
- Some communities resisted efforts to detribalise their youth.
- Urbanization gradually detribalised many groups across the continent.
- The anthropologist studied how modernization detribalised the region.