It Takes A Tribe

This Blog Post is about a required reading that we had to do for class called  "It Takes A Tribe" by David Berreby. The concept behind the excerpt was to show how different traditions and "Tribes" used to create a sense of community among students at different colleges and universities. This reading talks about how students don't really think about the small things that make a college or university what it is, but they see the big picture and just want to be a part of the "Tribe." Students may join a club or attend a certain school because they have friends that go there or they like the schools sports teams, but they may not look into the small aspects, like campus life and academics. Berreby States "Human Beings will give a lot, including their lives, for a group they feel part of." I agree with this, people do tend to give up a lot of their life to be a part of something, whether it's what they want or not. It's to fit in more often than not. I liked the part where the psychologist studied the Rutgers students and put them in a room that either had a Rutgers pennant, a Princeton flag, or a Yankees banner. Students in the Rutgers room tended to talk more about the color scarlet and Rutgers-related things, while those students who were not in the Rutgers room tended to talk about other things like their life and where they came from. I think that people really do just attend schools or join "Tribes" to be a part of something that makes them look better rather than something they enjoy. I really enjoyed what David Berreby had to say about campus communities and how they work.