The January number of Africa (vol. v, no. 1) contained an outline of a new field of anthropological research—African society as it is changing in contact with the forces of western civilization. Such forces can obviously be divided into two main categories: (a) the direct influence on tribal law and custom which is exerted by Government and missionaries through education, or administrative enactment; and (b) the indirect influence of changed economic conditions either in the area affected, or in the world at large—including such factors as the opening up of the country by roads and railways, the introduction of new currencies and standards of economic value, industrial developments such as mining, and lastly the changing world markets for African goods.

The following notes on the transfer of property by a man to his bride's father on the occasion of marriage are written as a result of the late Mr. Torday's paper upon this custom. Since the appearance of Mr. Torday's paper, and his suggestion that the word ‘earnest’ be used to designate this property instead of ‘bride-price’, many other people have written on the subject and many other terms have been suggested. It is not my intention to add to the already large list of possible terms, but to examine the custom as it exists in one tribe, the Hehe of Iringa, Tanganyika Territory. Such studies have, of course, been made in many good monographs on African tribes, but certain aspects of the custom, which are of some relevance to the present controversy, have not been emphasized.

Some apology is due for an article on this subject from the pen of one who has no claim to write with any authority. The impulse to set it forth springs from a deep-seated anxiety about African education that is evidently shared by others. To give expression to it may do a little to assist that focussing of opinion which is so vital a part of any comprehensive plan for bringing education to the African native.

Articles have appeared from time to time in this journal on the use of vernaculars in African education. The policy of using the vernacular in schools is general in British dependencies, and is in conformity with Memoranda on the subject issued by the Colonial Office Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies. In non-British territories policy varies; in some the vernaculars are the medium of instruction, while in others the use of them in the schools i s discouraged or actually banned.

One of the three major divisions of the Luba-speaking people in the Katanga Province in the Southern part of Central Belgian Congo is under the chief Kabongo, in a country well watered, fertile, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet, 8.5° south of the equator.

Game is plentiful, hunted for the most part seasonally, with bow and arrow, after burning the forest to drive out the game.

An agricultural people, without cattle, being cut off from the cattle region by the tsetse-fly belt, they have goats and chickens; though these are not used for food. They are in physique a tall, well-built, vigorous people, alert and intelligent, showing certain distinctions in physiognomy which indicate tribal mixture, although the traditions are unified. Contact with foreigners is occasional, foreign currency is viewed with suspicion, and the unit of exchange for local trade is the woven square of grass-cloth, made in the tribe, barter being still common.

The study of kinship is by now recognized as being one of the key positions in the study of primitive culture. The series of studies to be undertaken by the Institute of the effect upon native culture of modern industrialization will to a great extent centre on the problem of changes in kinship structure, and the changing function of the different types of kinship organization. With this final aim in mind, the following sketch purposely pays attention to the formal aspect only of kinship organization. It goes without saying that such merely formal studies can never be an end in themselves. But there is, on the other hand, always the danger that in historical or functional studies of kinship problems this formal aspect may be unduly neglected. This consideration—that a clear understanding of these formal problems has to precede any attempt at a functional or historical interpretation—is the only reason why these forms of kinship organization as such have been singled out here for theoretical discussion. This discussion does not aim at presenting anything new to the student of kinship organization. It simply attempts to sum up in a form as concise as possible the main results—and the main problems—of modern anthropology in regard to the forms of kinship organization. This can probably best be done by giving definitions of the most important of these forms and discussing their relation to each other.

Les Pahouins, ou Faŋ, sont un grand peuple bantou dont les ramifications principales sont: les Faŋ Betsi, Nzaman, Meké, du Gabon—les Faŋ Bulu, Yaundé, du Cameroun, et d'autres. Nous ne parlerons que de ceux répandus, depuis environ 1870, sur les bords du fleuve Ogooué, et, à l'équateur, le long du chemin allant au nord jusqu'au Cameroun, à l'est de la Guinée espagnole.