ABSTRACT
The basis of wealth among the Nyakyusa-Ngonde people has changed through remembered history, and during the past century of written record. Traditions of the coming of iron and of cattle to the Rungwe valley reflect a change in tools which must have increased productivity, a new source of food in milk and meat, and a means of storing wealth. Food in the form of grains, pulses, bananas and fish; salt; medicines; cosmetics; clay pots; baskets and sleeping mats have been continuing forms of wealth. Relationships between generations and between men and women are bound up with the control of wealth and therefore some analysis of changing control is necessary to our theme. Since cattle marriage was combined with polygyny, wealthy lineages increased fast, for sons married younger than in poor lineages, and they married many wives. Marriage by service among Nyakyusa and Ngonde continued in poor lineages until the twentieth century.
