Subtribes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A smaller, distinct group within a larger tribal community or society
2. a subdivision that retains unique cultural or social characteristics
3. a classification of people that, while part of a larger tribe, has its own identity and governance structure

Etymology: "Subtribes" is the plural of "subtribe," and it is best understood as a two-part formation: the prefix "sub-," meaning "under" or "below," joined to "tribe," a word that has come into English from Latin "tribus," the name of the ancient divisions of Roman citizens. A subtribe, then, is a division beneath a tribe. The term's most distinctive history lies in biology rather than anthropology. In taxonomy, the rank of subtribe sits between tribe and genus in the classification of living things, and the English usage was carried over from New Latin "subtribus," a scientific coinage used to label such intermediate ranks. The English word therefore reached its present sense by way of the naming systems of botanists and zoologists, and only afterward was applied loosely to human communities. In that wider sense, a subtribe names a smaller, distinct group within a larger tribal society, using the same logic that the taxonomic term applies to plants and animals: a part nested within a whole.