Define your thoughts about "Tribe" in Prepping/Survival concepts.

[Sourdough]

"NOT" asking you to define your tribe. Asking in your opinion, what others could likely manage as far as size of tribe they are genuienly willing to be responsible too.

Please don't make this political. Please save the grandiose tribe size, of your country or city, etc.

Maybe speak to your tribe's concept of its responsibility to other members.

 

[Neb]

"NOT" asking you to define your tribe. Asking in your opinion, what others could likely manage as far as size of tribe they are genuienly willing to be responsible too.

Please don't make this political. Please save the grandiose tribe size, of your country or city, etc.

Maybe speak to your tribe's concept of its responsibility to other members.

My siblings and their family.

About 20 or so.

Ben

 

[Canon29]

Hmm, genuinely willing? 5 max... maybe that's pushing it.

I would say all must have basic skills and understand camp responsibilities/security. Beyond that- If you cannot hunt, productively/safely/responsibly you must learn to skin, flesh and preserve etc.etc. sort of thing.

Gathering, refining and preserving resources will be a constant for all, but those lower in skills would be relegated to mundane repetitive tasks out of necessity until enough surplus can be obtained to invest in training for more complex and interesting responsibilities.

Currently building my tribe from scratch

 

[UserNameTaken]

I don't have a family, or a tribe. My sorta MAG fell apart 4 years ago. I guess I'm a lone wolf, for now. Well a lone couple. Or maybe a cat pack, considering the cat is an integral part of our defense. Just put the laser on the target and she'll do the rest...

 

[Amish Heart]

My tribe is my immediate family. Defining them....we will be responsible for each other. There's about 15.

 

[Sourdough]

There is no "right" answer to this. Here is one posable idea. "Core" tribe might be first degree kindred.

Broader (Not Core) might include second degree kindred.

 

[randyt]

My tribe is about 12 people. A couple combat veterans, a medical doctor/surgeon. The rest of us are riffraff...lol

 

[Mountain trapper]

It's just the wife and I. Our kids and other family member all live 400 miles away.

 

[Sourdough]

I am currently Tribeless. There are a very few who if they "just happened" to get caught/trapped near me, I would welcome.

 

[Sourdough]

I think speaking only for myself. It would be, could I sleep soundly in the same dwelling/shelter/building, without any apprehension.

 

[d_marsh]

I have an unskilled tribe that I am working on becoming a skilled tribe.

 

[Amish Heart]

They might think you're nuts.

 

[montanabill]

Enough people to stand 24 hour guard.....If times get really bad we all stay here, nobody leaves with knowledge of the inner workings...

 

[lonewolf]

lonewolf +1, I dont trust anyone enough to turn my back on them.

 

[Magpie]

They might think you're nuts.

They might not be wrong

My immediate tribe of five, plus me.
Extended family would make too many on the size of my property, and as 'townies' might be willing but not able, and while I trust them, I don't want to listen to whinging when I put them on rations.

 

[d_marsh]

They might think you're nuts.

I have taken them both shooting and they have thoroughly embraced it. Recent safety issues have pushed the idea of self-protection and readiness into the forefront of their minds and I intend to capitalize on it. I will however do so slowly and tactically. One day they will wake up wearing complete battle rattle including NVG's and M4's and not realize it even happened.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Interesting question.

My immediate family of 4 would be my tribe. There are others that I could/would form an alliance with (MAG), and a limited few others that might be something close to being part of my tribe.

 

[Mountain trapper]

My kids and grandkids live 400 miles away. They have been talking about moving closer to us. If they did they would certainly be welcome to come here if things really went bad. It would be nice to have the extra help around here.

 

[Caribou]

My friends live close to Mom so if I was here I’d try to get with them. At home we only have the friends of my wife. As much as I like them the wife and her friends are democrats. I don’t want to say that they would wait too long to pull the trigger but Haley’s Comet could return before they made the decision. I trust my neighbor at home but I don’t believe he is a gun guy.

 

[Hardcalibres]

"NOT" asking you to define your tribe. Asking in your opinion, what others could likely manage as far as size of tribe they are genuienly willing to be responsible too.

Please don't make this political. Please save the grandiose tribe size, of your country or city, etc.

Maybe speak to your tribe's concept of its responsibility to other members.

Speaking hypothetically (and in the context of a very severe long-term crisis), optimal tribe size would be in the range of 5-15 actually capable adults/adolescents.

Any incapable dependents would be additional to those numbers.

Any less than 5, would find it hard to maintain security 24/7....and even then that means single people standing watch......which would make that more practical if you have good security technology items to make a single person standing watch effective at:

1. detecting threats from any direction....and at distance
2. staying awake

Any more than 15 (plus dependents) and the group becomes too difficult to manage - even if those people are optimal and respect the chain of command. That many is also a mammoth task to feed.

If you have any people with normalcy bias, then they had better be good at doing what they are told.

If you have any people (even among dependents) that are normalcy biased and/or wont do what they are told, then the tribe will self-destruct.

That is one of the reasons why making a tribe work can be more challenging than the crisis itself.

In reality, most people can't and wont put a team like the above together.....so they just have to make do with what they have got or even go it alone.

The small group or single lone wolf can hide.....and move without leaving much of a trail.......and can make quick decisions.....and is the easiest to feed....which are all strengths of that model.

 

[joel]

More than twenty, less than fifty, forty acres, four wells & a spring, open land & wood lot.
Perennial & annual crops, some animals.

 

[montanabill]

Hopefully one cohesive factor would be young children the group wants to survive. I once read about a operator working in africa who trusted the grandmothers to keep watch and wake the camp because they wanted to see the children and grandchildren survive.
Everyone in the group would have to realize how unnormal the situation had become and the reason for hunkering down for the group to survive.
One of the tenets of belonging to a group would be respecting the quartermaster who doles out supplies and food. The sudden change from eating whatever whenever to rationing food out would be hard for some to adjust to.
Members of a group that are able bodied would also have to commit to some serious manual labor at boring jobs......if your teenagers aren't already working more than 40 hours a week there is going to be some "adjustment time".

 

[Sourdough]

One of the tenets of belonging to a group would be respecting the quartermaster who doles out supplies

When I was dumber than a box of rocks (pretty much a lifelong affliction) at a young age I got "SNOOKERED" into being Quartermaster of a troop of pre-teen fake wilderness want-a'bees.

That was a life lesson with TEETH. (It bites & bites & bites & bites & bites, You get the idea)

 

[montanabill]

When I was dumber than a box of rocks (pretty much a lifelong affliction) at a young age I got "SNOOKERED" into being Quartermaster of a troop of pre-teen fake wilderness want-a'bees.

That was a life lesson with TEETH.

Real life experience is what I look for and value in my own life. If things go sideways people will not all of a sudden be cooperative and do service for others.

It just might be people who have had to put up with others as part of a job might be better adapted to living with a group in a dificult situation.
Waitresses.
mental health workers.
somone who worked the complaint desk at a box store.'
service managers who deal with customers, mechanics and owners..(these might tend to be alchoholics).

 

[Hardcalibres]

....... I once read about a operator working in africa who trusted the grandmothers to keep watch and wake the camp because they wanted to see the children and grandchildren survive.
..........

That has not been my experience.

I have seen an African grandma throw one of her grand kids in front of a passing car, that she had just spotted was being driven by a white expat.

She was hoping for the compensation money that sometimes is paid in cash, at the scene of a traffic accident.

That scam is not uncommon.

 

[Morgan101]

There are three of us, and I would expect 2 SIL's would have to be rescued. One is indigent and in hospice. The other is a retired nurse and could be helpful. Either way, they could not be left to fend for themselves. There might be three more of my wife's family members, but I think they would fend for themselves. The relationship with them is strained at best.

The rest of my family is 1000 miles to the East and 1500 miles to the West. It would be very hard to connect. I have planned to have them all with me, so there should be ample provisions, and room in the house. Hopefully we won't kill each other. It would not be a cohesive group.

 

[montanabill]

That has not been my experience.

I have seen an African grandma throw one of her grand kids in front of a passing car, that she had just spotted was being driven by a white expat.

She was hoping for the compensation money that sometimes is paid in cash, at the scene of a traffic accident.

That scam is not uncommon.

Too bad, my info is older from human sources I have known.....different time and place.

 

[montanabill]

I think most well meaning people will have a hard time with any emergency that lasts more than a couple of months or has no hope of things returning to normal any time soon.
For a minor problem of course family is the first choice. But after a while who are you going to want in your group. people with probems that suddenly are unmanageable such as sociopaths, type one diabetes, medicaly infirm who require constant supplys and monitoring, borderline personalities, phycotrophic medicated folks who run out of meds? Someone will have to make some hard choices or the group will become nonexistant from their choices.