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Thread: Were the Germans still a Tribal Society?

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    Default Were the Germans still a Tribal Society?

    Were the Germans in the period of Attila still a Tribal Society?

  2. #2
    Linke's Avatar Hazarapatish
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    Default Re: Were the Germans still a Tribal Society?

    No not really, you har people call the Vandals and the Franks and the Goths tribes but they were not at all similar to Rlme II age tribes. A more accurate Word would be confederation, they came originaly from tribes in Scandinavia or Germania joining together I believe but mixed with other peoples like the Alans and other confederations.
    The fact that some Ummayad muslim conquerers of the Visigoths considered themselbes visigoths dont really prove anything but its an example of what being a Frank or a Goth could mean. Later when they settled down they became a single people with their own identity.

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    Magister Militum Flavius Aetius's Avatar δούξ θρᾳκήσιου
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    Default Re: Were the Germans still a Tribal Society?

    They had become heavily influenced by the Roman empire as they neared the borders over time, which helped them to advance in organization, culture, etc. via indirect and direct Roman and non-Roman influences. Eventually they began forming confederations in the 3rd century AD, and by the mid-5th century AD the first true "Kingdoms" were beginning to emerge.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Were the Germans still a Tribal Society?

    Depends on what you mean by "tribal". As far as I can tell, Germany was formally divided along ethnic lines until about 1871. Some elements of tribal character or ethnic subgroup affinity remain strong in modern Germany.

    Tribes came and went, and merged into each other. During the end of the Western Roman period the Germans might have become somewhat more settled around a particular area that corresponds to modern ethnic divides, but the major elements of tribalistic culture remained unchanged essentially since the times of Marius, and would continue for yet a long time.

    It the Church's slow cultural influence over the next few centuries that lifted the Germanic tribes out of what us can perhaps describe as "barbarism", by spreading whatever little writing, ethics, customs and cultural knowledge passed down from Antiquity, as a byproduct of proselytism.

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