A bunch of bananas, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, a herd of sheep, and a tribe of people. There are obvious differences and similarities.

@EdEarl A totally different thing. Those are collective nouns for different animals. Humans along with the other great apes are tribal .Cows, sheep wildebeest etc are herd animals and behave in a totally different way from tribal species.

Just because humans may appear to act like sheep or cows on occasions does not make them herd animals.

@Moravian What are the differences between a tribe and those other collections?

@EdEarl [en.wikipedia.org]. this probably describes tribal behaviour quite well and it is nothing like herd mentality. For example calling people who voted for Trump sheep or sheeple is lazy as they probably had independent selfish reasons for doing so. Some may have been swayed by public opinion or influenced by Trump's rhetoric if you could call it that but they are the opposite of sheep as they acted independently and did not follow one another as sheep tend to do.

@Moravian Wikipedia says "The tribe, a long respected category of analysis in anthropology, has recently been the object of some scrutiny by anthropologists ... Doubts about the utility of the tribe as an analytical category have almost certainly arisen out of the rapid involvement of peoples, even in the remotest parts of the globe, in political, economic and sometimes direct social relationship with industrial nations. The doubts, however, are based ultimately on the definition and meaning which different scholars give to the term 'tribe', its adjective 'tribal', and its abstract form 'tribalism'.[3]."

I still do not understand the difference between a tribe and those other collections.

@EdEarl I think we are getting bogged down in semantics here. All I am saying that although people appear to exhibit a herd mentality it is much more complex than that. I do not believe that many people blindly follow one another but give it more thought than that and it is too easy just to label them sheep.
Regarding the other collective nouns. they are used to describe a collection of animals but do not say anything about the behaviour of those animals. eg a gaggle of geese or a murder of crows.

Herd animals blindly follow one another, tribal animals show empathy to others in the tribe and will fight with other tribes. Pack animals such as wolves will also help one another. but herd animals do not normally show those attributes.

@Moravian I cannot speak for you, but I am not bogged down in semantics. You seem to disagree with my first reply. Since then I've only asked you to clarify your disagreement with my statement.

You pointed me to Wikipedia, which had some good info. Thanks.

Your latest reply says people are more complex than animals, which is common knowledge. On the other hand, scientists have observed some surprising behavior in various animals, including elephants, crows, dolphins and others.

Elephant experiment
A rectangular sled was placed outside an elephant enclosure, with a rope around 3 sides and the two ends laying just inside a couple of meters apart. If either end of the rope were pulled, it would be pulled around the sled. Food was on the sled too far for the elephants to reach it with their trunks. The elephants were inside a barn during setup.

Two elephants were released from the barn. They spotted the food, hurried to the fence, each grabbed an end of the rope and pulled the sled under the fence. Then they ate.

They cooperated to get food.

Crow experiment
A researcher wore a mask while capturing and banding some fledgling crows. The parents protested loudly. Other crows in the murder watche and listened.

For three years the crows in that area alerted and dived to attack anyone wearing the mask, including crows born after the masked banding.

Dolphin experiment
Some dolphins were trained to do some tricks and read cards with symbols on them. The researchers would show a sequence of cards to ask the dolphins to do a particular trick.

One day, after they were well trained, two dolphins were asked to invent a trick, and perform it.

The two looked at each other, made some noise that must have been communicating, because they immediately did a trick they had not been taught by researchers.

Others
There are more surprisingly complex behaviours done by animals. None do all the things people do.

Reference YouTube videos.

Anyway, I still don't understand the point you have been trying to make about tribe and those other collections.

@EdEarl To my mind, a tribe is some sophistication built upon a basic herding instinct. Organisms may be doing more differentiated things but they're all doing it together. in cencert with each other

"people are terrified of thinking for themselves". Who are you to speak on behalf of humanity. Do you think the tens of thousands demonstrating in Hong Kong haven't thought about the consequences ?.

How do you think we got female emancipation, labour laws,gender equality etc. By people thinking for themselves.
Your original statement is nonsensical.

@EdEarl If you really want to understand the difference engage with the works off Emile Durkheim and Clifford Geertz.

To be charitable, the majority of people are herd minded & cowardly. The history of humanity is a series of disasters because people refuse to think, except for us elitist scum who have our own prejudices, except they are more subtle & sophisticated than the common herd. Old cowboy saying, "Don't approach a bull from the front, a mule from the rear, or a fool from any direction"

@Remiforce To be fair, you make a couple good points and I am likely guilty as an elitist scum. The "fool from any direction" point melds well into my old saying, "Confuse not the minds of the ignorant, they will only hate you for it". Better to avoid them and not engage them.

@TomMcGiverin When you're out on a campaign, political or otherwise, & you meet some fool who is naive enough not to agree with you, don't waste your time & energy arguing with them. Get away from them as soon as possible & find someone more sensible & persuadable