Tribal Fictive Kinship
Description
John Robb:
"For the vast majority of our history as modern humans, we lived in tribes. Tribes are the organizational boost that lets us overcome the scaling limits of families and clans bound by blood relations. To achieve this, tribes employ a concept known as fictive kinship.
Fictive kinship is a connection that allows people to form a familial relationship with someone who isn’t actually related by blood.
It’s fictive in that it isn’t actually a familial kinship, but it feels that way. For example, if they are hurt, you react to this hurt as if they were a member of your family. In the case of the Scottish girl, people view her as a daughter or younger sister in peril.
To create this bond, tribes use stories (often embellished and exaggerated like fiction) and rituals. Stories that explain why they came together and why they are better together. Stories that describe the enemies that threaten them. In this case, the story is about an invasion of immigrant men, unbound by cultural norms and aided by a corrupt government, who prey on unprotected women and girls."