ABSTRACT
The Manus are a sea-dwelling, fishing people who occupy villages built on piles in the shallow lagoons along the south coast of the Great Admiralty Island. The Manus tribe, which is a cultural and linguistic unit, consists of some two thousand people. One Manus village which is too far from any agricultural neighbors to trade fish, relies upon manufacturing and trading pots instead. To discuss the functioning of a Manus village, it is first necessary to state the social structure, the background of ideas, with which each generation of Manus men work out the local group economy. A survey of the adult male population of a Manus village shows three major divisions: leaders; their dependents and followers, and a group called “independents”. In the village of Peri every man of outstanding personality, which expressed itself in dealing with other people in aggressive initiating terms, was a leader.
