[f. TRIBAL + -ISM.] The condition of existing as a separate tribe or tribes; tribal system, organization, or relations.
1886. Edin. Rev., April, 443. No national life, much less civilisation, was possible under the system of Celtic tribalism.
1893. Goldw. Smith, Ess., 176. National churches have lapsed into something very like tribalism in this respect [about war].
1898. Weekly Reg., 29 Oct., 561. Those who have set the maxims of Christ above those of narrow tribalism.
So Tribalist rare, a tribesman.
1888. in Cassell’s Encycl. Dict.
