THE TALLENSI 271
the return of the excess livestock raided in the interest of peace between neighbours—an appeal as likely to fail as to succeed.
Tale jural notions and procedures are in conformity with the elaborately segmented character of the social structure. As there was formerly no completely dominant social unit or association, there could be no constituted legal machinery backed by irresistible force. Every region of Tale society, from the joint family to the whole vaguely delimited aggregate known as the Tallensi, exhibits a dynamic equilibrium—of like units balanced against one another, of counterpoised ties and cleavages, of complementary institutions and ideological notions. At every level of Tale social organization—kinship, clanship, economic relations, local relations, and the nexus of ritual interdependencies—the tendency towards an equilibrium is apparent. Overlapping and interlocking, these different orders of social relations reinforce one another. The principal mechanism by means of which this equilibrium is maintained is the balanced distribution of authority and prerogative, on the one hand, and of obligations and responsibilities—economic, jural, moral and ritual—on the other. Through this mechanism the component elements of any segment of the society control one another.
This does not mean that Tale society was ever stagnant. Tension is implicit in the equilibrium. It might explode violently when the specific interests of a unit were violated. But conflict could never develop to the point of bringing about complete disintegration. The homogeneity of Tale culture, the undifferentiated economic system, the territorial stability of the population, the network of kinship ties, the ramifications of clanship, and especially the mystical doctrines and ritual practices determining the native conception of the common good—all these are factors restricting conflict and promoting the restoration of equilibrium. War was the ultimate sanction against the violation or submergence of the specific rights of the corporate units constituting Tale social structure, and the ties of ritual collaboration the sanction preventing the complete disintegration of this structure into anarchically independent fractions. Social relationships in Taleland fluctuate between amity and discord, co-operation and conflict, for forces engendering both are always active; but in the long run an equilibrium is maintained. The political system of the Tallensi hinges on this principle.