According to Salzman, tribes conceptualized as the descendants of a common ancestor on the male line, will combine their resources with other closely related relatives against more distant ones, and the whole tribe will then stand together against outsiders.
Tribal loyalties are said by one commentator drawing on Salzman's work to " create a complex pattern of tribal autonomy and tyrannical centralism that obstructs the development of constitutionalism, the rule of law, citizenship, gender equality, and the other prerequisites of a democratic state.