ABSTRACT
From the smallest to the biggest all residential groups were known as ula. This chapter discusses the two basic groups: the polygynous family and the village inhabited by an extended family. The enactment of the expected behaviour between members of the polygynous family described in an impressionistic fashion. In time a polygynous family will grow into an extended family. The extended family has to be defined by the following two characteristics: it encompassed three generations and it was a fairly stable residential group living in its own quarter of a village. Common residence was also a major factor in the development of another set of social groups. For within one or neighbouring settlements there were groups based on common liking: on friendship. The striking individualism of the Tio, the importance of friendships are also part and parcel of what could be called a frontier situation, if it were not that the Tio had been living there for such a long time.
