This seems to be a different faction of Mandalorians than the ones we have seen before. Perhaps they still follow the ancient traditions of Mandalore whereas the majority of Mandos, like the ones from Clone Wars and Rebels, have become more progressive over the centuries. In a conversation with a friend I joking referred to the Mando’s tribe as “The Amish of Mandalorians”.
Comparing Mandalorians to Christians seems like a weird comparison, but I think it could help get the point across.
The New Mandalorians like Satine Kryze and her pacifist faction would be like modern secular Christianity, which fought against the traditions of Mandalore, which would be like your typical conservative Christian beliefs (gay marriage, pro-life vs pro-choice, etc.).
Death Watch would be like radical Christian extremists, fighting to preserve their traditions but going overboard with it. Their attempted coup in the Clone Wars could be compared to Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Tribe from The Mandalorian might be a decent comparison to Old Order Amish, who still live and practice older Christian traditions in isolation and breaking those traditions could result in exile or ostracism, beliefs which might seem excessive to even the modern conservative Christian (Clan Wren and the other Clans we see in Rebels as an example, since they seem to remove their helmets without issue, but still follow their traditions more-so than Satine’s faction did).At first I thought The Tribe’s fundamentalist beliefs might’ve been a reaction to the possible failed rebellion that Rebels was setting up, but in Chapter 4, Mando said he had not shown anyone his face since he was adopted by The Tribe, so their practices would predate the Empire. I could be totally off-base, but the idea of varying “denominations” of Mandalorians coexisting would be pretty interesting to me and make them seem more like a living, fluid culture rather than a two-dimensional “warrior race”.
I felt like it is being hinted that ‘the purge’ is something that happened to the Mandalorians during imperial rule that meant that they were pushed underground. The ultra-strict culture that our Mando is part of is just the result of the socio-cultural changes post-purge.
That’s what I thought at first, but Mando said no one has seen his face since he was adopted by the clan, which would’ve been during the Clone Wars. It’s possible the Tribe was pushed underground as a result of the Empire’s purge, but some of their more fundamentalist practices seem to pre-date that event.