For instance - look at the masonic lodge. Is that, or is that not
a tribe?
Pretty definitely IMO (my father was a Mason, and his family have a
pretty strong Masonic tradition.)
...and my hazy impression was that the Masons had much more raison
d'être before the spread of insurance companies who disintermediated*
the "two-way protection" aspect.
-Dave
* whether or not one views this as disintermediation or
reintermediation depends upon whether one thinks of market providers
as more or less natural than tribal providers; from far enough away
they both look like intermediaries, only with differing premium and
reinsurance policies.
