ABSTRACT
The structure of Chiga society is polysegmentary. It is based on a fissioning lineage system similar in many ways to that which has been described for the Nuer and other peoples in northern East Africa. Among the Chiga, the process reaches from the individual household, which contains the dividing lines of future separation within its unity, to the exogamous clans, which are linked segments of larger totemic groups. Every extended patriarchal household is in most respects a single social unit, and one which has considerable independence. It has its own cows, its flocks of sheep and goats, its own fields, spread among those of its neighbours along the slopes of the surrounding hillsides. The various members of a lineage such as the Abahirane have a high degree of social integration. Their mutual relations are much the same as those between actual brothers, especially if the group is small.
