248 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
clanship,1 but in consequence of the operation of different sanctions. The threat of war or, nowadays, of suspending friendly relationships is especially effective, since it endangers also community or ritual ties of fundamental import for the general good.
When ties of contiguity are added to those of clanship or of ritual interdependence, communities wider than the local clan emerge in certain situations. It is a matter of degree, of balance and contrast. The constituent units of such a community are more closely interconnected inter se than with other, similar units. Co-ordinated action for one end may be succeeded by independent, even conflicting action, following the lines of local and genealogical cleavage, for other ends.
Finally, the economic system is a limiting factor in the political organization. The Tallensi are peasants farming mainly cereal crops. The essential feature of their agriculture is fixed cultivation. They till the land surrounding their homesteads (samari) continuously, supplementing this with the less intensive cultivation of bush farms (poog) some distance from the settlement. The livestock they keep, though indispensable, is of subsidiary significance in their economy. Very few are wealthy enough to possess livestock equivalent in value to more than one or two head of cattle.
Peace and the introduction of British currency have brought about a tremendous expansion of local trade, but commerce is still mainly a casual occupation ancillary to agriculture. This is the case also with the few domestic crafts of the Tallensi. The only division of labour is that according to sex. Agriculture and animal husbandry are predominantly men's work; women attend to the domestic duties and engage considerably in petty trade.
Hunting and fishing, though pursued with zeal, contribute little to the subsistence level. The sylvan products of the untilled bush, however, supply commodities indispensable for their
1 Thus it is an extremely heinous and therefore almost unknown offence to abduct a clansman's wife. It jeopardizes the very foundations of clanship as a factor both of political solidarity and of cult unity. The whole clan would be outraged and the elders would resort to the most drastic measures to set the matter right. The reaction is similar in the more frequent case of a man's abducting a woman married to a neighbouring clan; but this is due to fear of violent retaliation. In both instances, ritual reconciliation is necessary (cf. below, p. 270, where this is referred to again in another context).