Sure, but the issue is the connotations of the English word. Why tribe and not nation? What's the difference?
--- On Sun, 9/7/08, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
> >
> The Roman term "tribune" is cognate to
> "tribe." The constituent
> political units of Athenian democracy and of the Roman
> republic were
> the tribes. Western culture is irremediably marked by the
>
> contributions of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Iroquois
>
> confederacy, the most democratic political institution ever
> to exist
> on this benighted continent, was composed of five (later
> six) tribes.
>