ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the nature and role of religious organizations. It discusses certain other types of voluntary association. Churches provide a wide range of opportunities for people to exercise leadership roles. And they provide mutual aid: obligations of 'church people' to help one another are very strong. The Christian population worships in at least forty different church buildings operated by some twenty different denominations. Among the mass of tribespeople who are uneducated—or who are, at least, not accepted as members of 'civilized' society—membership of voluntary associations is nearly always confined to members of one tribe, even where the same, or similar associations exist among different tribes. There is a close relationship between masonry and the churches, and on feast days of the 'patron saints' of the craft, special masonic services are held and masons parade through the streets in full regalia.
