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Tribe vs. Cult — What's the Difference?

Tribe vs. Cult — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Tribe and Cult

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Tribe

The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant usage of the term is in the discipline of anthropology.

Cult

In modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial, having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia, and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.

Tribe

A unit of sociopolitical organization consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry and culture and among whom leadership is typically neither formalized nor permanent.

Cult

A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object
The cult of St Olaf

Tribe

Any of the three divisions of the ancient Romans, namely, the Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan.
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Cult

A person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society
A cult film
The series has become a bit of a cult in the UK

Tribe

Any of the 12 divisions of ancient Israel.

Cult

A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.

Tribe

A phyle of ancient Greece.

Cult

The followers of such a religion or sect.

Tribe

A group of people sharing an occupation, interest, or habit
A tribe of graduate students.

Cult

A system or community of religious worship and ritual.

Tribe

(Informal) A large family.

Cult

The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

Tribe

(Biology) A taxonomic category ranking below a family or subfamily and above a genus and usually containing several genera.

Cult

A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.

Tribe

An ethnic group larger than a band or clan (and which may contain clans) but smaller than a nation (and which in turn may be contained within a nation). The tribe is often the basis of ethnic identity.

Cult

Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.

Tribe

(synecdoche) A tribal nation or people.

Cult

The object of such devotion.

Tribe

(pejorative) A nation or people in an area considered culturally primitive, such as Africa, Australia or Native America.

Cult

An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

Tribe

A socially cohesive group of people within a society

Cult

A group, sect or movement following an unorthodox religious or philosophical system of beliefs, especially one in which members remove and exclude themselves from greater society, including family members not part of the cult, and show extreme devotion to a charismatic leader.
Two former cult members explain the difficulties they had extricating themselves from it.

Tribe

(zoology) A group of apes who live and work together.

Cult

The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint.
The cult of Apollo
The cult of Mary

Tribe

(taxonomy) A hierarchal rank between family and genus.

Cult

(informal) A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
The heavy metal cult; the cult of basketball; the guitarist's cult of loyal fans; the cult of celebrity

Tribe

The collective noun for various animals.

Cult

Of or relating to a cult.

Tribe

(stock breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.
The Duchess tribe of shorthorns

Cult

Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
A cult horror movie

Tribe

(transitive) To distribute into tribes or classes; to categorize.

Cult

Alternative form of kvlt.

Tribe

A family, race, or series of generations, descending from the same progenitor, and kept distinct, as in the case of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.
A wealthy Hebrew of my tribe.

Cult

Attentive care; homage; worship.
Every one is convinced of the reality of a better self, and of the cult or homage which is due to it.

Tribe

A number of species or genera having certain structural characteristics in common; as, a tribe of plants; a tribe of animals.

Cult

A system of religious belief and worship.
That which was the religion of Moses is the ceremonial or cult of the religion of Christ.

Tribe

A nation of savages or uncivilized people; a body of rude people united under one leader or government; as, the tribes of the Six Nations; the Seneca tribe.

Cult

A system of intense religious veneration of a particular person, idea, or object, especially one considered spurious or irrational by traditional religious bodies; as, the Moonie cult.

Tribe

A division, class, or distinct portion of a people, from whatever cause that distinction may have originated; as, the city of Athens was divided into ten tribes.

Cult

The group of individuals who adhere to a cult (senses 2 or 3).

Tribe

A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line; as, the Duchess tribe of shorthorns.

Cult

A strong devotion or interest in a particular person, idea or thing without religious associations, or the people holding such an interest; as, the cult of James Dean; the cult of personality in totalitarian societies.

Tribe

To distribute into tribes or classes.
Our fowl, fish, and quadruped are well tribed.

Cult

Adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices

Tribe

A social division of (usually preliterate) people

Cult

An interest followed with exaggerated zeal;
He always follows the latest fads
It was all the rage that season

Tribe

A federation (as of American Indians)

Cult

A system of religious beliefs and rituals;
Devoted to the cultus of the Blessed Virgin

Tribe

(biology) a taxonomic category between a genus and a subfamily

Tribe

Group of people related by blood or marriage

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