Tribal

Michael Morris, a cultural psychologist in the Department of Psychology and the Business School at Columbia University, argues that tribalism historically was essential to the development of human intelligence and is the root of such values as altruism, cooperation, and the sharing and preservation of knowledge.

Human Cultures

Cultures arise and evolve over time, Morris explains, because individual minds encode the behaviors of those around them. Cultural codes emerge from a group’s evolved social structures. The human ability to share knowledge is unique. When someone in a Stone Age group figured out how to collect coconuts, for example, others imitated that person’s technique. Over time, the group developed a shared pool of knowledge.