ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the interaction of several groups of individuals in Magugu, a community in northern Tanzania in which scores of tribes are represented. Ethnic affiliation is situational. As Southall has cautioned, there is a danger in stressing a unidimensional classification of sociocultural groups, because the units of classification and analysis will vary according to the phenomenon and the problem studied. The multiethnic Muslims and Christians may well identify with a tribe when they reside in their homeland, just as the Mbugwe primarily identify with their ethnic group, often to the exclusion of other identifications. Magugu is a rural community in the Arusha Region of Northern Tanzania. People in Magugu often describe their town as a community of strangers. Some salient aspects of Magugu social organization are: a tendency toward affiliation with a conjugal household, the creation of crosscutting ties across tribal lines, and the development of personal networks of affines, kinsmen, and friends.
