ABSTRACT
IN considering the implications of exogamy one must first look at the position of a man in his own village and villagegroup. His relations with the village of his mother will then be considered.
As between the individuals born in anyone village-group or possibly in two or more village-groups if they claim a common ancestor, and more particularly between the individuals born in one village there are certain taboos. It is taboo to kill or eat a fellow villager or to make black magic against him. This is not to say that such things do not occur, but the prohibition is there and applies increasingly with the decreasing size of the unit involved. A man should thus, in theory anyway, be able to feel himself fairly safe in his own birthplace and in fact he does so. But it is in the native village of his mother that he really feels himself to be persona grata. "I can climb up and pick their cocoa-nuts and they will not mind," said one man to me as we walked through his mother's village, and his bearing was that of one who knows that he is welcome. And he took me into some wedding celebrations that were in progress because he had the right of entry. A man is greatly respected in his mother's village, said another of my informants. Talking with a third man one noticed how his voice changed when he came to the congenial subject of his mother's native village. He spoke as though it were with her people that he really felt safe-an unusual feeling for an Ibo. He said that his own native place might harm him-one of the many discrepancies between social theory and hard factbut that he would not fear in his mother's place. He would eat without being afraid. If he goes to his mother's village and steals the people will not hold him, they will let him go. If one of them tries to make bad medicine-practice sorcery-against him it will not harm him and the maker himself will die. And the same thing will happen if he tries to make bad medicine against his mother's people. If, as he expressed it, people do any bad thing to him the people of his mother's village will ask them to stop. And if people,
Clearly matriliny plays a considerable part in Ibo society. Descent and succession are patrilineal, marriage is patrilocal and a man inherits from his father. But the matrilineal principle is there asserting itself both legally and emotionally.
