ABSTRACT
The tribes are territorial units in that the tribal territory is the totality of the districts of one tribe. Tribes are not corporate bodies though in Konkombaland proper they are localized units. There are no tribal rites such that all or many clans come together; there are no corporate activities. In inter-tribal war there is no intervention of elders to avert combat, no hesitation of young men reluctant to fight with neighbours. Konkomba tribes are, like the clans, probably impermanent though much longer enduring than the clans. Tribes are not corporate bodies though in Konkombaland proper they are localized units. From the temporary, interstitial structures, the nuclear lineages, to the long-enduring but not necessarily permanent tribes, every unit of the structure is in its own degree transient; each may break up and disappear to give place to a new structure of the same form.
