ABSTRACT
The institutions and structures of Tio society while operating together in a neighbourhood or small scale society clearly fall into two blocks: an integrated set of structures, covering all aspects of life whose geographical basis was the area occupied by a village and its neighbours. Two forces contributed to give to Tio society its most typical and original features: the special environment and the steady expansion of the commercial system. The steady expansion of the trade in slaves and ivory since the 1530s provided the second force bearing on Tio society. The idiosyncracies of Tio society may have some comparative value for the theory of anthropology. On a more general level, the suggestion that each structure in a society has a sphere of its own in space and time and that susceptibility to change is directly correlated to the geographical size of that sphere may prove helpful and will have to be examined in relation to theories of social integration.
