Tribu es un concepto social, político, y antropológico no enteramente definido y lleno de polémica. Dependiendo de autores, épocas y tendencias el concepto tribu tiene significados muy diversos y sirve a propósitos diferenciados. Surgen por tanto destacadas discrepancias entre los diversos científicos sociales como los antropólogos según el enfoque desde el cual se quiera obtener la definición exacta. El concepto de tribu ha sido utilizado asimismo para manipular la política de los sujetos colonizados y establecer subdivisiones o minimizar la importancia de las entidades socio-políticas principalmente en África y en Asia.El fenómeno tribu urbana surge en la segunda mitad del siglo XX con la crisis de una modernidad industrializada, burocrática e individualista, que está dando paso a una reivindicación de contacto humano, físico y, sobre todo, de una nueva imagen de los jóvenes y para los jóvenes.Llamamos tribu urbanas a las pandillas, bandas. O, simplemente agrupaciones de jóvenes y adolescentes, que se sirven de modo parecido y llamativo, siguen hábitos comunes y se hacen visibles, sobre todo, en las grandes ciudades. Adolescentes y jóvenes ven en las tribu la posibilidad de encontrar una nueva vía de expresión, un modo de alejarse de la normalidad que no les satisface y, ante todo, la ocasión de intensificar sus vivencias personales y encontrar un núcleo gratificante de afectividad. Una especie de cobijo emotivo por oposición a la intemperie urbana contemporánea que, paradójicamente, les llevaba a la calle. Sus miembros acuden a ellas, entre otras cosas, para tener su propia expresividad, para sentir la cohesión con los otros, para encontrar apoyo sentimental y para compartir experiencias y actitudes con quienes consideran iguales. Una ocasión para la evasión de un mundo frío y tecnologizado que ha hecho de la distancia y el aislamiento su naturaleza propia.

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A tribe is viewed, developmentally or historically, as a social group existing before the development of, or outside, states. A tribe is a group of distinct people, dependent on their land for their livelihood, who are largely self-sufficient, and not integrated into the national society. It is perhaps the term most readily understood and used by the general public. Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, an organisation dedicated to indigenous rights, defines tribal people as those who "...have followed ways of life for many generations that are largely self-sufficient, and are clearly different from the mainstream and dominant society." This definition, however, would not apply in countries in the Middle East such as Iraq, where the entire population is a member of one tribe or another, and tribalism itself is dominant and mainstream. There are an estimated one hundred and fifty million tribal individuals worldwide, constituting around forty percent of indigenous individuals. Although nearly all tribal people are indigenous, some are not indigenous to the areas where they now live. The distinction between tribal and indigenous is important because tribal peoples have a special status acknowledged in international law. They often face particular issues in addition to those faced by the wider category of indigenous peoples. Many people used the term "tribal society" to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of social, especially familial, descent groups (see clan and kinship). A customary tribe in these terms is a face-to-face community, relatively bound by kinship relations, reciprocal exchange, and strong ties to place. "Tribe" is a contested term due to its roots of being defined by outsiders during the period of colonialism. The word has no shared referent, whether in political form, kinship relations or shared culture. Some argue that it conveys a negative connotation of a timeless unchanging past. To avoid these implications, some have chosen to use the terms "ethnic group", or nation instead. In some places, such as India and North America, tribes are polities that have been granted legal recognition and limited autonomy by the national states.

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