From society to tribal communities

Between the 18th and the 20th centuries, modernity was built on rationalism, individualism (the individual seen as a unit) and on the social contract of the Republic, united and indivisible. The modernist project was to dominate nature and to be universal. The postmodernity which has succeeded it has seen the powerful return of the impulse to community and of the need of collective emotion - I call this neo-tribalism (1988). The plural person, identifying with a number of tribes and elective affinities based on common tastes, is rediscovering the importance of territory (roots) and 'compagnonnage' - the passing on of a trade and a craftsman's identity, an initiation rather than an education. It is this nascent postmodernity which I attempt to describe.