ABSTRACT
Social intimacy is often an expression of social equality and the absence or presence of close associations may in some situations provide a fairly reliable guide to a system of social stratification. A social stratification system is an expression of the differential ranking of functionally significant roles in terms of a common set of values or, put another way, it is the result of the interaction of social differentiation and social evaluation. The social grading of occupations in Lower Gwelo is related also to influence and power. The chapter describes with various accessible behavioural manifestations, which serve as indicators of differential evaluation and hence of status in Gwelo. As an illustration of the uncertainties in interpretation of the patterns of association as indicators of social status in Gwelo, we consider here the results of a questionnaire relating to closest friends.
