部落(bù luò) - tribe in Mandarin

部落 (bù luò) means a tribe: a group of people bound by kinship and territory, living outside the structures of a modern state. It shows up in history writing, anthropology, adventure films and fantasy games.

The measure word is 个. To say someone belongs to a tribe, use 部落 with 的: 部落的首领 is the chief of the tribe.

Two traps. First, 部落 is not a general word for group or team, however tempting the tribe metaphor is in English business talk. A team is 团队 and a group is 组. Second, do not confuse it with 民族, which means an ethnic group or nationality and is the correct, neutral word for China's fifty-six recognised peoples. Calling one of them a 部落 would be both inaccurate and rude.