ZanithOneI don't know. I mean, the guy is clearly a powerful warrior AND shows a degree of respect for Yona both by accepting her challenge and by throwing her off the cliff. And the behavior of the rest of the tribe is also NOT the behavior of a group of people who just had their bellowed leader usurped. It's very clear that she is in fact going against the grain here.
And equally Yona is not exactly the brightest member of the household and somewhat dogmatic about her views so we can't really judge the situation based off what she experiences.
So my guess would be that we are experiencing the opposite situation. The old Chief might well have actually been the weak one or in some other way unfit or seen as unfit by the tribe. Or he might just have lost popularity for some reason. Like maybe he didn't raid enough or something. The "badguy" kills him with the tacit approval of the tribe and his wife. He takes over and everything works out as it does in these cultures.
Yona understandably takes this badly. And the rest is plot.
