In a previous essay I sought to make a distinction, not an original one, between two processes of dispute settlement: adjudication, and negotiations (Gulliver, 1969: 17). This was not intended as an absolute distinction, for clearly there are certain features common to both. But I was emphasizing what seems to be a key factor: the existence or absence of a third-party adjudicator. Whilst recognizing that this distinction is not acceptable to some scholars in the sociology of law, and that some would not wish to give such importance to that key factor and to other associated processual characteristics, it is nevertheless worthwhile to examine further the processes of negotiation. There are at least two reasons for this. First, anthropologists have given rather little attention to the description and analysis of negotiations in the variety of societies and cultures which is their concern. Secondly, processes of negotiations occur in all societies, including of course our own Western ones, and I believe that there are common patterns to them, cross-culturally, which merit attention.