[Contents]
About This Book
An anthropological study that combines meticulous ethnographic description with an explicit account of method, recording the social organization, ceremonial life, and dairy-based institutions of a pastoral community. It explains the structure and ritual roles of herd-centred units (the ti), the offices of dairyman-priests and their assistants, distinctions between sacred and ordinary animals, and the spatial arrangements and rites associated with dairies. The author details sources and informants, assesses degrees of evidential reliability, and keeps descriptive material separate from theoretical interpretation presented in later chapters.