ABSTRACT
Chimbu envisage their group structure as one of patrilineal segments. The largest group is described as having had a founder, and subgroups at each level are regarded as the sons of the founder. The links between the levels in this hierarchy are also conceived as those between brothers and between fathers and sons. But ordinarily only one level or the relations between two levels are under consideration. Therefore, a total hierarchy of segments is not relevant to most situations. An anthropologist may construct a complex diagram from the replies to a large number of questions from many informants, but this is not really in the mind of any Chimbu. I collected lists of subgroups within many Chimbu tribes. Men who were not members but claimed some knowledge of the internal structure of a tribe often could enumerate the names of some subgroups, but subsequent checking with members of the tribes concerned showed this to be a conglomerate of clans, sections and subclans, without any indication of segmentary structure. Members of the tribe usually distinguished the groups I call clans from those I call subclans, but informants within the tribe did not always completely agree upon this three-level segmentary hierarchy.
