Tribalism’s hallmark, the fear and hatred of outsiders, has disfigured human history with war, genocide, and oppression. Today, around the globe, tribalism and xenophobic nationalism are on the rise with potentially catastrophic results. Understanding and resisting today’s trends begins with a recognition that tribalism has deep evolutionary roots. Paradoxically, tribalism has underpinned much that is good in human society at the same time that as it has framed some of our species’ most destructive acts. This symposium aims to shed light on the evolution of tribalism and its vestiges in present-day human minds in order to better understand its manipulation by modern states. As we search for solutions, evolutionary perspectives can help guide us in building a better, safer, and more survivable future. This video is the introduction to a Leakey Foundation Survival Symposium entitled, "Our Tribal Nature: Tribalism, Politics, and Evolution." The symposium was held in September 2019 at the Morgan Library in New York. About the speaker: Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe, The Perfect Storm, Fire, A Death in Belmont, and War. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film, Restrepo, a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Junger has also written for magazines including Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Men’s Journal. His reporting on Afghanistan in 2000, profiling Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated just days before 9/11, became the subject of the National Geographic documentary Into the Forbidden Zone and introduced America to the Afghan resistance fighting the Taliban.