verb
- to cause to abandon or lose tribal customs, organization, or identity
Usage: anthropological; often used in historical or sociological contexts
Examples
- Colonial policies sought to detribalize indigenous populations through forced education.
- The government’s relocation program aimed to detribalize Native American communities.
- Urban migration can gradually detribalize rural populations.
- Missionaries worked to detribalize converts by discouraging traditional practices.
- The boarding school system was designed to detribalize Native children.
- Economic modernization tends to detribalize traditional societies.