3S4 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
widely a lineage may be dispersed, its members can never escape the mystical jurisdiction of their founding ancestor. Cognatic descendants, too, fall under this jurisdiction as individuals.
The ideological framework of the lineage system is the ancestor cult; that of locality is the cult of the Earth (tey). It is not easy to formulate briefly the connotation of the word tey, in its mystical aspect. The natives distinguish between kuo, the arable surface, tamy the soil, and tzy, the community, the locality, the land, or the Earth in its mystical aspect, according to context. Unlike ancestors, who differ from one genealogical group to another, and whose influence is confined to their own descendants, the Earth is single and universal; in theory, all peoples are subject to the mystical power of one and the same tsy. Yet the Earth is manifold, too. Sacrifices must be offered to it at particular sacred spots (tog-gban), and the word tty (pi. tss) is applied to such places, meaning the sacred spot and its precincts. Toygbana, and hence fe in this restricted sense, have names and, like genealogical groups, differentiating taboos.
Between tty the universal and tty the particular sacred spot lies tey the locality embracing a number of sacred spots, but conceived as the widest precincts of one, the principal (kpeem) among them, and under the priestly jurisdiction of a single tzndaana. This principal toygban is the ritual hub of the locality, the shrine of fep, the universal Earth, where important sacrifices are performed, especially at the times of the Great Festivals, and ritual atonement is made for sacrilege. As neighbouring tendaanas are usually connected by ties of clanship or of ritual collaboration, so neighbouring trygbana and tes are regarded in ritual and doctrbe as 'kinsfolk' (mabiis). In conformity with the social structure, all the to of Taleland and of some neighbouring non-Tale communities are regarded as 'kinsfolk', a metaphor which reconciles the diversity of sacred spots with the singleness and universality of the Earth.
The greatest sacrilege against the Earth is to shed human blood in strife. Atoning sacrifices must be made by both parties or they and their issue will perish. It is only less sacriligeous to keep anything found on the Earth (teijdnpiima), especially stray animals, objects of metal, or vagrant humans. Cloth may not be worn when sacrifice is offered to the Earth.