ABSTRACT
THE Apa Tanis’ relations with their Dafla and Miri neighbours fluctuate between intensive trade contacts involving frequent reciprocal visits with much animated conviviality and periods of hostility punctuated by kidnappings, raids and killings. To the newcomer to the Apa Tani valley it is at first confusing that traditional trade partners are usually also hereditary enemies, and that the Dafla and Miri villages figuring in stories of raids and feuds are always those with which the tellers have the closest economic relations. But on reflection it is understandable that friction arises more frequently between tribesmen pitching their brains against each other in deals of buying, selling and lending than between strangers or casual acquaintances whose interests are seldom in conflict. The pattern of tribal trade necessitates moreover concentration on a limited number of trade partners. As there are neither open markets nor anything comparable to a shop, the trader, anxious to sell his wares in villages two or three days’ walk from his home, must have friends in whose houses he is sure of a welcome and who may either buy themselves or help him find purchasers for his goods. Such friends must also be prepared to guarantee their visitor’s security to the extent that they will regard any attack on him as equal to an attack on a member of their own household. We have seen in Chapter VI (pp. 114–15, 115–16) that several major conflicts between Apa Tani villages arose from the outraged sense of responsibility an Apa Tani host feels for the security of his Dafla or Miri friends as long as they are on the territory of his village.
