ABSTRACT
THE inhabitants of the Apa Tani valley constitute a community distinct in language, dress and manner of living from the Dafla and Miri tribesmen of the adjoining hill-country. A strong tribal sentiment, a consciousness of their basic separateness, a pride in their institutions and customs, and a passionate attachment to their small homeland, turned by incessant labour into a veritable garden, unite all Apa Tanis and set them apart from the surrounding populations which represent to them the outside world. Whereas Dafla villages are ephemeral and the composition of the populations which inhabit the rugged country to the east, north and west of the Apa Tani valley is fluid and has been so for generations, Apa Tani society is characterized by a high degree of stability. Geographic mobility is as limited as social mobility. Unlike his Dafla and Miri neighbour, who at any moment may sever his connection with the settlement in which he was born and seek his fortune in new surroundings, the Apa Tani cannot migrate without completely abandoning the style of living in which he has grown up. He is tied to his valuable land and to the one valley where alone he can carry on the elaborate system of agriculture in which he is an expert. Though nothing would prevent a man from exchanging the village of his birth with any one of the remaining six villages in the Apa Tani valley, even such a change of residence is unusual and most Apa Tanis end their life as members of the same village quarter into which they were born.
