by John Mosby
Tribes, and the bands that make up those tribes are—historically and prehistorically—composed of a physical and spiritual extension of the family. In European cultures this is referred to with some derivation of the Germanic term “folk.” To use another traditional European term (I am after all, of very European descent), your folk are your “kith and kin.” While it will undoubtedly incite the angst of the white power organizations, despite my use of Euro-centric terminology, this is not about race, contrary to their blatherings otherwise.
“Kin,” as anyone raised in the Southern Highlands as I was, can tell you, means “family.” These are—obviously—those people related to you by blood. “Kith” on the other hand, is somewhat more complicated, because it is so often misused by those with a political agenda. According to the Merrian-Webster dictionary, kith refers to “familiar friends and neighbors.” It is Middle English, cognate of the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, word cythth, meaning “known.”
