Definition of "detribalize" [detribalize]

• To cause to lose tribal membership and customs. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Natives who conformed to the act could detribalize and become American citizens in the fullest sense."
• "Rather than trying to detribalize Zaire, Mobutu simply made sure that leaders of each power faction had a share of the riches, while he skimmed off the top."
• "The late Ninian Smart, a doyen in the comparative study of religion, argued that it is through the comparative analysis of worldviews that we will generate the normative conceptual resources and categories for worldview evaluation, if only because the process itself will serve to “detribalize Westerners,” that is, enable us to overcome our dispositional tendency to “treat our tradition normatively, either explicitly or secretly."