Amphictyony

If you don't know what it means, that's ok. "Amphictyony" is not the most intuitive word. "Amphi-" kind of sticks out, but the rest of the word leaves the best wordsmith cowering in the fetal position, unsure of his assumed prowess. It is a real word, though.

"an association of neighboring states or tribes in ancient Greece; established originally to defend a common religious center" ~WordNet (R) 3.0 (c) 2006 by Princeton University

John Bright uses this particular thorn of a word in his A History of Israel to describe the tribes of Israel after each assumed its portion of the land of Canaan and there abouts. My question is this: If this is the best word that Bright could acquire for use, then does he mean to say, in what he does not say, that the distinct tribes did not necessarily give a lick about each other, but only YHWH and his dwelling place?

Or maybe he meant they were all actually Grecian?