A school (pod, in the case of dolphins) or a band or a herd is not a tribe (though they all have certain things in common, to be sure). The tribe is preeminently a cultural entity. Encountering a band of Sioux is vastly different from encountering a band of Navajo. This isn’t the case with dolphins or gorillas or antelope; one school, band, or herd of them is virtually identical to the next. The Taker perception is that our ancient ancestors accomplished nothing during their long tenure of the earth. My perception is that their accomplishment was the development of HUMAN society-tribalism. When they started out as Homo habilis, they lived in bands that were probably as close to identical as bands of chimpanzees. Gradually, evolutionarily, their descendants developed the lifestyle we recognize as tribal.
