ABSTRACT
THE CULTURAL DIVISIONS of aboriginal Subsaharan Africa fall into two general categories, those areas inhabited by the foodgathering and herding peoples of the eastern and southern part of the continent, and those comprising the societies based on agriculture, found in the western and central portions. In the former, we saw that villages were communal groupings, most often based on ties of kinship, economically self-sufficient, and standing in a loose political relationship to other villages of the same tribal group. Societies to the north and west, on the other hand, were found to have had a considerable number of towns, and even cities of appreciable size. The importance of affiliation on the basis of kinship was not lessened in these towns and cities, their essential pattern was for members of a given kinship group to cluster in the same quarter or ward. Lloyd has called the Yoruban centers "tribal" t0wns.l Markets, held at fixed intervals, were ubiquitous, with the range of products for sale reflecting the division of labor in the economies of this part of the continent.
