ABSTRACT

Busama are so drilled during childhood in the moral obligations underlying kinship ties that when grown up they help one another almost as a matter of routine. Yet they are also fully conscious of their mutual dependence and of the risks they would run by defaulting. Several men grumbled at different times about receiving inadequate help, but a little probing soon disclosed that they were at the moment tired, out of sorts, or disappointed by having to shelve some cherished project. If taxed subsequently with unreasonableness the majority were shame-facedly prepared to agree. The few men who give their kinsmen more help than custom demands win the reward of public approbation. The opposite types, those who consistently fail to live up to their obligations, whether through ill-nature or laziness, are referred to with contempt as 'the rubbish that destroys the good name of the village'.