Do tribal cultures indicate that communalism defends individuality?
Yes. In many tribal cultures (what some people call “primitive”), we find a strong respect for individuals. As Paul Radin points out, “[i]f I were to state . . . what are the outstanding features of aboriginal civilisation, I . . . would have no hesitation in answering that . . . respect for the individual, irrespective of age or sex” is the first one. [The World of Primitive Man, p. 11] Murray Bookchin comments on Radin’s statement as follows, “respect for the individual, which Radin lists first as an aboriginal attribute, deserves to be emphasised, today, in an era that rejects the collective as destructive of individuality on the one hand, and yet, in an orgy of pure egotism, has actually destroyed all the ego boundaries of free-floating, isolated, and atomised individuals on the other. A strong collectivity may be even more supportive of the individual as close studies of certain aboriginal societies reveal, than a ‘free market’ society with its emphasis on an egoistic, but impover
