ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a limited comparison of the several main ethnic groups in the area, the Dassanetch, Nyangatom and Mursi. Long-term population movement between the Inkabelo and Inkoria sections are not described, but one imagines that they may occur indirectly, through the "intermediary" Narich section. Cattle are the most valued material possessions of the Mursi, as they are of the Dassanetch and Nyangatom but, in an objective sense, they are less "pastoral" than either of these groups. The northward movement of the Mursi-Bodi, as of the Dassanetch-Nyangatom, boundary is associated with periods of military activity, lasting years rather than months that must nevertheless be seen as interrupting the "normal" state of relations between groups. In the context of permanently hostile relations, military activity is a means by which groups which are in potential competition for the same resources maintain a respectful and geographical distance between themselves.
