ABSTRACT
It is important to bear in mind that kinship relations in the family group are inter-articulated in a single configuration, dominated by the patria potestas of the male head of the family. The natives are very conscious of this, and take it into account in the management of their lives. They say, for instance, that a woman's parents continue to have great influence over her for some years after her marriage and that is why her husband must keep on the good side of his parents-in-law. Most Tale families seem to go on in a stable and harmonious way; but there are very many possibilities of friction, some inevitable, some avoidable, which arise out of the cleavages inherent in the structure of the family. The Tallensi regard marriage as the normal state of life for every adult. Even a fruitful marriage, the strongest of all bonds between husband and wife, may suffer shipwreck.
