The Impetus of Ancient Tribal Systems for Modern-Day Consumer Tribes

This paper investigates the phenomena of consumer tribes by reflecting on a traditional tribal system, the New Zealand Māori, to uncover tribal structures, ways of interacting and how resources are utilised within a community. We map contemporary conceptualisations of the consumer tribe against that of a traditional tribe. We focus on the traditional tribal structure and its concept of place to explain the creation, retention and distribution of resources in contemporary consumption communities. We propose that tribalism is an appropriate metaphor to explain the integration of people and structure of groups within contemporary societies. As such, it is also possible that the way a tribe’s resources are developed, enhanced, maintained and used by its constituents may explain the similar mechanisms within consumption communities.