ABSTRACT
As the whole system of social relations in Ruanda constituted closely knit fabric, it was thought that an understanding of the political institutions necessitates also some treatment of the other structures of human relations. This chapter details the period immediately preceding the time when Ruanda was submitted to the influence of Western culture through its European agents. That is to say, in the continuously moving historical stream, it studies the particular configuration of the Ruanda political organization at the moment when it had been moulded by the action of many forces, but not by the full impact of European contacts. As a social anthropologist of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale, the author carried out field work in Ruanda for two years, from December 1949 to November 1951. In addition to this work, three systematic inquiries on specific subjects have been completed: political organization, kinship and family structures, and cosmological and ethical systems.
