ABSTRACT
The term Formal Alludes primarily to form or appearance as opposed to matter or content. But in English (and increasingly in French too) the word ‘informal’ (informel) has taken on the secondary meaning of ‘unofficial’; and we can describe persons, and not simply acts or situations, as being formal or informal. The distinction helps me to explain how my informants, male and female, in the Central African Republic in 1988 managed to present me with their society on a plate.
