ABSTRACT
Age-grade communal labor associated with the custom plays a major role in village agriculture. The economic impact of the non-agricultural activities is relatively small, however, compared to both agriculture and labor migration. Like social life, making a living in Etyolo is complex, but can be reduced to three basic types of activity: food production; household creation and maintenance; and cash-earning. Younger villagers are naturally anxious to marry and begin their own household. Village men believe that several wives assure a household's economic security, and so they will try to obtain a second or third wife if possible. Although Etyolo is largely self-sufficient in food, villagers have a variety of cash needs which have important implications for differences in individual patterns of activity. Items once considered luxuries have become virtual necessities for most villagers; they include such things as tools, kitchen equipment, livestock, clothing, soap, matches, salt, flashlight batteries, sugar and kerosene.
