We explain what urban tribes are, their role in adolescence and why they are subcultures. Also, examples and characteristics.
What are the urban tribes?
An urban tribe is a group of generally young or adolescent individuals, who share a daily way of dressing, a language own and in general a series of habits and likes of consumption, typical of a modern and urban environment. This is one of the most common forms of grouping of young individuals in the society contemporary.
Urban tribes are, in essence, identities shared in a group way and expressed through certain habits and behaviors. Many understand them as a way to navigate the complexities of the adolescence and youth, clinging to a group identity and ideology, capable of providing a sense of belonging, very important during certain stages of life.
In sociological and anthropological terms, however, urban tribes are inscribed in what is known as "subculture": a massive sociocultural expression, but underlying the culture official or hegemonic. That is, a culture that subsists within another larger and more formal culture, such as the traditional cultures of each country.
In this way, a young person belonging to a specific urban tribe may have things in common with another from a particular culture and a country very distant and different. These types of experiences are typical of society globalized and are facilitated by relationships through Internet.
These are marginal, minority groups that resist traditional society, but at the same time undertake a model of urban life, typical of the capitalism global and post-industrial. The music, the technology, fashion and fictional imaginary (stories, symbols, etc.) are central elements in each of the tribes, whose identity can end up being stereotypical, that is, easily recognizable.
Urban tribes change over time, are born and die, just like any other phenomenon collective, and adapt to new aesthetic, social and technological scenarios.
That is why they are considered an important anthropological expression, which proposes certain models of connection and association within the community: many of them form "gangs", promote "congresses" or mass meetings, and in general mobilize a large number of information digital in social networks and other spaces for exchange.
Examples of urban tribes
As we have said, urban tribes tend to continually change and reinvent themselves and disappear, and many of them are typical of a geographic region determined, at least until they become popular and global. The best known of them are, by way of example, the following:
- Hippies. Appeared between the 1960s and 1970s, this is probably the oldest urban tribe in existence. Its values of antimilitarism, pacifism, anti-consumerism and promotion of free love and sex have been inherited to many other later urban tribes. Hippies (or hippies) are recognized for their disheveled or informal look, passive and hedonistic attitude, prone to drug use and spiritual outlook new age, which seeks to connect with ancient traditions or other cultures.
- Punks. Associated with the musical movement of the 1980s, as well as a rebellious and combative attitude towards society and the politicsIt is one of the oldest urban tribes that still survives, although adapted to the new times. They are characteristic of punks (or punks, punks, etc.) his clothes with abundant leather and military boots, piercings and tattoos, colorful crests and radical haircuts, as well as his slogans nihilists (there is no future) and an ideology of oscillating between the apolitical and the revolutionary.
- Geeks or geeks. Initially, these terms were used for any fan of technology, certain games or video games, or certain learning topics (the astronomy, mythology, etc.), whose devotion was considered "excessive" or unusual. However, the massification of these hobbies gave rise to the urban tribe of geeks (mostly fanatics of technology) or geeks (mostly fanatics of fantasy and geeks). comics). Today it is an urban tribe with highly variable features, of people prone to introversion and shyness, to the 2.0 world, role-playing games, and horror and fantasy stories.
- Otakus. With this Japanese name with very specific uses in its mother tongue (it is basically an honorific form of the second person), an entire urban culture born in the early 1990s in the West was baptized, and characterized by devotion to the Asian world , in particular Japanese, and especially for its comics and animations. Otaku are known for their quirky, futuristic dress, and their taste for comic book and anime conventions, in which they often dress up as their favorite characters (cosplay).
- Emos. Its name comes from "emotional"(" Emotional "in English), and emerged in the early 1990s in the United States, linked to certain genres of pop / rock. However, their greatest popularization took place during the 2000s, as inheritors of the depressive and suicidal aesthetic of other later and extinct urban tribes, such as the grunge, the gotics (goths) or the skate (skateboarders). Their clothing tends to be dark colors, to the use of makeup and nail paint in both sexes, to piercings and tattoos, to hairstyles with bangs (usually covering one or both eyes), and their behaviors are often cynical and withdrawn.
- Gamers. This is the urban tribe of inveterate video game players, whose clothing and game codes conduct tend to be much more lax and varied than in the rest of the list, although always with the presence of elements from the world of videogames, especially those considered retro or vintage. However, the «jugones» (Spain) of both sexes are recognized for dedicating a large amount of time to the video game, and for decorating their homes with merchandising from the industry, as well as tattooing symbols of their important video games, and being always very aware of the novelties of the industry, around which his way of life revolves.