ABSTRACT
Custom, taboo, marriage and kinship obligations, all this and much else was accepted by all in an essentially unreflective way. Missionary Christianity in its Western garb and never entirely hidden colonial connections challenged that unitary whole from top to bottom. In all societies there was a range of personal roles and in the more complex societies there was a structural classification such that while some people must benefit from the maintenance of the status quo, others could benefit by its dissolution. In the very early period of a mission too, while boys would see no point in coming to school, girls might begin to do so. Women attached themselves to the missions for a multitude of reasons: they might be escaping brutal husbands or unwelcome marriages, particularly as additional wives to some rich polygamist. In the area of marriage itself the issues are more complex.
