Members of the Tribes
One of the more common, though informal ways of referring to people who are Jewish is as a “Member of the Tribe”. Tribe is a loaded word. Our first association with a tribe might be Native Americans or other indigenous nations. The meaning of tribe in this context and the related word tribal has taken on an undeserved negative connotation as more uncivil or atavistic belying the fact that native societies are no more (and in some cases less) conflict oriented than non-indigenous societies. In fact, the origin of the word tribe has nothing to do with indigeneity or anthropology but rather denoted in the ancient world divisions into groups and, after its use in Biblical translations, predominantly the twelve tribes of Israel, the distinct descendants of each of Jacob’s twelve sons. . Historically, however, the bulk of the tribes were lost to the Assyrians before the first destruction of the Temple leaving Judah and Benjamin along with the Levites from which came the priests and functionaries of the Temple. For all intents and purposes, what used to be canonically “the tribes” is in essence one tribe.
Ultimately then, the Biblical assumption that there would be a significant marking of identity and territory along tribal lines is transformed. “Member of the Tribe” now denotes not a division but a connection across the differences