ABSTRACT
In writing of the Fulbe it is necessary at the outset to consider the relation of cattle to their social system. A discussion of cattle at this stage, in the absence of ethnographic data, must necessarily be superficial and it should be regarded as merely an introduction to some basic concepts, to be elaborated in later sections, against which to view and interpret values and institutions within the society. Large-scale cattle-ownership by women is regarded as anomalous. The cattle-owning units are the simple and the compound family—these are the basic economic units. Adult Fulbe being themselves interested in cattle impart their enthusiasm to the children of the camp. Small boys gravitate towards the corral as they begin to develop 'intelligence’. A short Fulbe metaphor, given in free translation, expresses in a bovine idiom the way in which they visualize their society.
