ABSTRACT
It is commonly said, everywhere in Taleland, that the Talis are 'all one'. The Talis themselves, in spite of their elaborate differentiation by clanship ties, always picture themselves as a cohesive group. For a Namoo, the social definition of the Talis is primarily 'those who gird their dead with a sheepskin loin cover and taboo (kih) the tortoise (pakur) and the water-tortoise. Talis explain deviations from the common ritual, such as those of the people of Ka'ar or of Gorogo, by the cliché, Our ancestors desired it so'. Thus the Gorogo people claim that their founding ancestor originally came from the Woolǝga country. Certain other funeral rites are also stressed as rigorously distinctive of the Talis and as common to all of them. The broad patterns of doctrine and ritual practice are the same for all Tallensi, and are an indication of their uniform culture and of a social structure which embraces all the Tallensi in a single system.
