ABSTRACT
The basic unit of the Gurage household, abarus, is the family and the terms used between its members set the pattern of the kinship system. Kinship affects sexual relations, it determines the behaviour patterns of persons formally recognized in the system of terminology, but does not prescribe preferential mating in Gurage society. The village political and judicial system is the primary source of social control at the local level. It is recognized by Sawa which has not interferred to any marked degree with its traditional form and function; it retains the village headman at the pivot of village political life. Marriage is the most important social event involving two unrelated homesteads that can occur in Gurageland. This is a most significant occasion in the life cycle of man and woman, for marriage is not only the starting point of the family, but also the starting point of the kinship ties which link together the genealogically independent segments of two clans.
