Toute la population Yombe est répartie en neuf groupes généalogiques à l'intérieur desquels la loi de l'exogamie n'est plus guère observée aujourd'hui. Ces groupes dénommés zimvila (sing, mvila) s'appellent du nom de leur ancêtre respectif Ntinu Makaba, Nanga Nakongo, Phudi Nzinga, Makhuku i Ntinu, Manianga Nakongo, Mbenza Nakongo, Numbu Nzinga, Ngimbi i Khota, Madunga Namboma, tous fils d'une mère légendaire Mbangala, la femme auxneuf seins.

The Problem of Social Conformity in Action. The functional analysis of social life is concerned with the discovery and elucidation of the inner coherence and living unity of single cultures. The comparative analysis of social life, on the other hand, sets out to explain the similarities and differences which distinguish separate cultures by reference to universal laws which are objectively, that is to say actually, true of all known societies. Separate analysis must necessarily precede detailed comparison, for only so can intelligible units of comparison be discovered. None the less the analysis of a single culture must, right from the beginning, assume a certain general similarity between all cultures if it is to be successful in its own limited field. Intelligibility is nothing else than comparability, and it is only by making explicit the comparability of a Central African culture, for example, with our own and other cultures that we can make its own unity and inner coherence intelligible to ourselves. But, while we are concerned with a single unit only, its comparability with other units can only be made explicit in general terms and not in detail.

The region with which this study is concerned comprises the political units of Uganda, Kenya, Zanzibar, Tanganyika Territory, and the Belgian mandate of Ruanda and Urundi. (See Map I.) Its total area is some 727,000 square miles, i.e. more than eight times as large as that of Great Britain, though of this total area about 40,000 square miles consists of water surface. In 1931 the native African population totalled about 14,600,000, whilst the figure for the European population stood at 28,223. The European element is thus outnumbered in the proportion of more than 500 to 1, and even the total non-native population, including Europeans, Indians, Goans, and Arabs, is outnumbered in the ratio of 80 to 1. The native population constitutes a vastly preponderant element in the whole, and it is on the salient features of its distribution that the attention of this paper is wholly focused.

When Europeans came into contact with the Swazi, it was inevitable that, since the two cultures had not the same institutions, beliefs and practices, one and the same situation was criticized from different social viewpoints and judged from different standards of value. Even when certain actions were similarly classified, each milieu gave them its own distinct emphasis or pattern, while similar values were embodied in and maintained by very different institutions. Immediate practical considerations and the political theory varying with place and time determined to what extent the dominant culture controlled the development of the traditional African life. I have chosen to analyse the way in which the military organization of the, Swazi, one of the basic factors in the traditional culture, has reacted under that small arc of Western civilization which has impinged on the lives of the natives in the Protectorate.

The Kru, a West African Negro group, inhabit the central and southern part of Liberia. They are surrounded by the Basa peoples to the north-west, by the Grebo to the south-east and by the Putu to the north-east. The informant, Thomas Tarbour (Sieh Tagbweh), from whom the following material was derived, was a native of Grand Cess (Siglipo), a large coast town near the border of the Grebo country. The Kru, along with other related groups in that part of West Africa, have a tradition of having migrated from far to the north-east. The physical type is that of the short, stocky Bush negro. No archaeological work has been done in the region, and such ethnological material as has been collected is a mere beginning.

Every one who tries to write in an African language, especially if he is translating from a European language or compiling a textbook, very soon has to decide what he is going to do about foreign words. In Northern Nigeria, as in most parts of Africa, the difficulty arises largely from the fact that most of the literature has up till now been produced not by the people whose language it is, but by the foreigners who are introducing the new ideas for which terms are required. Indeed, if it were possible for the people to write their own books, the problem would solve itself, for the idea would first be conceived, and then a suitable equivalent in the vernacular found to express it, or a foreign term incorporated, as the necessity arose.