ABSTRACT
One way of analysing the relationship as well as the parallels between beer-drinks and co-operative labour is through the individual homestead, returning to the general theme of 'building the homestead'. The individual homestead as the productive unit is inseparable from the social relationships that constitute it. The general moral precepts in terms of which the homestead's relationships are constituted are evident at certain stages of beer drinks; the actual relationships on which collaboration is based become evident at other stages, or at the beer drinks linked directly to co-operative work. But even at the latter, the actual relationships are presented within a wider moral context in terms of which homesteads exist and depend. It seems evident that beer-drinks provide a point at which everyday practice and ideas about society are brought together, a point at which human agency and social structure can be integrated and provided with supernatural sanction.
