ABSTRACT
The Busama often say that they live and work together because they are related, and certainly each one of them can trace some sort of tie with all his neighbours. If a stranger wishes to be admitted he must first find a sponsor who is prepared to accept him as the equivalent of a brother. The rest of the villagers, should they approve, then work out their relationships accordingly. The more important a man is in village affairs the larger his household will be. The household carries out the jobs necessary for the satisfaction of day-to-day needs. Women, because they are the media through which their brothers' land rights descend, can legitimately be regarded as members of the same lineage. In Tikopia the survival of kinship bonds is dependent upon active social contact between the persons concerned. Tikopia is too small a community for kinship ties to be entirely lost.
