ABSTRACT
I opened and closed this book with a description and discussion of St Paul's festa—San Pawl. The ground covered in between was intended to explain the significance of San Pawl for those who participate in it and organise it. This explanation was rooted in an understanding of the lives of the Pawlini not merely in their explicit contact with the festa, but 'in the round'. I therefore presented an holistic ethnography, dealing with different areas of social life—community, gender, family, politics, religion, ritual.
