Internet Tribes: From Totems to Discord Servers

You join a Discord server for the first time, which has 650,000 members and hundreds of channels. Within a few minutes, someone notices that you still have the default profile picture, the typical "new member" icon. “Welcome!” they say. “Make sure to read the rules and pick your roles.”

You start browsing. People are using words you’ve never heard before. There are inside jokes you don’t understand. Everyone keeps using an emoji that clearly signifies something, but you have no clue what it means.

And it hits you instantly: You’re not “in” yet. You’re an outsider watching a world that already has its own culture.

But here’s what’s fascinating: humans have been doing this exact thing for tens of thousands of years. The Discord server with its custom emojis and channel hierarchies isn’t actually new. It’s just the latest version of something deeply, anciently human.

This time of year, it’s so easy for your daily routine to be thrown off.

When it starts getting dark before you’re home from work and the Halloween candy is taunting you, it’s important to find something that’s easy to do daily for your body.

That’s where AG1 Next Gen comes in.

With just one quick scoop every morning, you’ll get over 75 ingredients that help support your immune health, gut health, energy and help to close nutrient gaps in your diet.

Click here and you’ll get a free AG1 welcome kit with your first subscription including a:

✔️ FREE Flavor Sample Pack
✔️ FREE Bottle Vitamin D3+K2 Drops
✔️ FREE Canister + Shaker

It’s one of the easiest things you can do for your body every day.

Click here

_{*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.}

In traditional societies, tribal identity wasn’t abstract; it was carved into totems, woven into patterns, and sung in specific rhythms, acting as visual markers of clan identity and serving as educational tools for younger members. In traditional African societies, masks used in rituals represented deities or ancestors, creating boundaries between the sacred and the profane, between insiders and outsiders.

Anthropologist Victor Turner explained that rituals generate what he termed “communitas,” which is a strong feeling of social unity experienced through shared symbolic activities. These weren’t just performances; they were identity-making machines. When you participated in the ritual, wore the mask, or stood before the totem, you were saying: I am one of us.

The French sociologist N.D. Fustel de Coulanges observed in 1864 that certain rituals of ancient Greece and Rome functioned as boundary-maintaining mechanisms. They conveyed and maintained the corporate identity of social groups. If you knew the greeting, understood the symbols, and followed the protocols, you belonged. If you didn’t, you were outside the circle.

The pattern was universal: symbols + rituals + shared language = tribe.

The sociologist Émile Durkheim called this force “collective consciousness,” the totality of beliefs and ideas common to members of the same society. He argued that humans don’t merely form groups by chance; rather, creating groups is a necessity. In what Durkheim termed “mechanical solidarity,” individuals in small groups closely resemble one another, and their individual identity is inseparable from the collective identity.

Durkheim observed an important phenomenon: when individuals come together for shared rituals, they enter a state called “collective effervescence,” which involves intense group emotional engagement that strengthens group symbols and reinforces their collective experience ideals. First, group symbols are shaped. Second, values acquire meaning. Third, participants experience a renewed sense of vitality, a concept later described by Durkheim's follower Randall Collins as "emotional energy."

Think about it: Durkheim identified that social groups provide a sense of identity, belonging, and solidarity. Without a strong bond with others, people feel isolated and alienated, a state he called "anomie." We are not meant to exist as isolated individuals. Our identity is partly defined by the groups we belong to.

This isn't a bug in human psychology. It's the operating system.

The digital age didn't change this need; it just gave us new tools to satisfy it.

Being outspent doesn't mean being outmarketed. Our latest resource showcases 15 small businesses that leveraged creativity instead of cash to achieve remarkable marketing wins against much larger competitors.

Ready to level the playing field? Download now to discover the exact frameworks these brands used to compete and win.

Download now for free here.

Discord, originally built for gamers in 2015, is projected to reach 656 million users by the end of 2025, with 200 million monthly active users. The platform has over 28.4 million servers, digital campfires where tribes gather. The largest server, Midjourney (an AI art community), has 19.93 million members, more than the population of many countries.

But size isn't the point. 90% of Discord servers have fewer than 15 members, tiny, private worlds with their own customs, inside jokes, and social hierarchies. Each server develops its own symbols: custom emojis, role colors, channel naming conventions. Each has its rituals: welcome messages, level-up celebrations, voice chat traditions.

A study involving more than 51,000 X users discovered that members who did not conform to group norms by sharing content valued by the group faced decreased social interaction over time. What is the punishment for not performing tribal loyalty? Exile. Not physical exile, just silence. Being left behind. Dropped from the group chat.

Research on digital tribalism shows that social media algorithms create echo chambers where users primarily encounter information that confirms their existing beliefs. This phenomenon, "tribalization," leads to more isolated communities that mirror and strengthen current worldviews.

Modern tribes aren't meeting around fires. They're meeting in subreddits, Discord servers, group chats, and comment sections. But the psychological mechanisms are identical to those Durkheim observed over a century ago.

📜 Quote: "We are wired to encode the patterns of the communities that nurture us and then enact these patterns." — Cultural psychologist Michael Morris

📊 Study: Research from the Digital Wellness Lab (2024) found that while online networks can promote self-disclosure, identity formation, and a sense of belonging, these same spaces can make some adolescents feel socially isolated, creating what researchers call a "paradox for social connectedness."

🎨 Artefact: The Discord profile picture frame has a tiny border that announces "I support this server" or "I'm a Nitro subscriber." A digital totem pole, compressed to 128 pixels.

😂 Meme: That moment when someone joins your Discord server and immediately starts suggesting changes. Sir, you haven't even learned our emoji lore yet.

🤔 Prompt: What's the smallest online group you're part of? What makes you feel like you belong there, and what would make you feel like an outsider?

We want to hear about your tribes. What's the weirdest or most specific online community you've joined? What were the unwritten rules you had to learn? Reply and tell us; we’re collecting these stories for a future deep dive into the anthropology of niche internet spaces.

Here's the thing about tribes: they're not good or bad. They're human.

Durkheim showed us that belonging to groups isn't just nice to have; it's protective against anomie, that feeling of disconnection that can lead to serious psychological harm. We need our tribes.

But tribes have always had a shadow side. The same mechanisms that create "us" also create "them." The same symbols that unite insiders exclude outsiders. The same rituals that generate belonging can enforce conformity.

Your Discord server, your group chat, your subreddit, they're doing the same work that totem poles and tribal masks did for millennia. They're helping you answer the question: Who am I? by answering another question: Who are we?

The challenge isn't to transcend tribalism. It's about being conscious of which tribes we're joining, which rituals we're performing, and which boundaries we're maintaining.

Whether we realise it or not, we're all wearing digital masks and gathering around digital fires.

The question is: do we know what our totems represent?

Subscribe to Culture Decoded for weekly insights on modern behavior.