One effect of specialization in the field of African Studies has been to prevent or hinder the study of subjects which, by their very nature, demand interdisciplinary interests and competences. Emerging popular culture is such a field. Division of labor among various social sciences and between the social sciences and the humanities—late-comers to Anglo-American concerns with Africa—have long worked like a conjuring trick: making vast and vigorous expressions of African experience de facto invisible, especially to expatriate researchers. African scholars have been slow to denounce this state of affairs, perhaps out of an elitist need to set themselves apart from the loud and colorful bursts of creativity in music, oral lore, and the visual arts emerging from the masses.

The debate on the ‘Bantu expansion’ has been notable for the relative absence of contributions by social and cultural anthropologists. Murdock's rather extravagant contribution (1959) has assumed a quite inordinate significance, as the only direct attempt to discuss the sociology of large linguistically defined areas. This anthropological silence is particularly noteworthy in view of the close collaboration between anthropologists, linguists and archaeologists in the Americas. It is fair to say that nothing in the Africanist literature approaches the sophistication of, say, Dyen and Aberle's Lexical reconstruction: the case of the proto-Athapaskan kinship system (1974). Studies like that are the outgrowths of a living tradition stemming from Boas and Kroeber and Sapir. There is nothing comparable in Africa—H. Baumann, the only candidate, lacked sociological interests and did not systematically relate his findings and hypotheses to those of the linguists. Yet it is surely obvious that an anthropological contribution is needed here, if only in a critical role. The present paper outlines a few of the ways in which social and cultural anthropologists might contribute; and begins with a critique of traditional ‘culture area’ approaches, since these are generally thought of as the kind of thing that anthropologists can do, however poorly.

In the past there was a tendency to seek economic cooperation among one's local matrilateral and bilateral kindred. Like the Lozi situation described by Gluckman (1941), the economic activities of Luapulans are so varied that a wide deployment of manpower is required. In any one situation there are always some local kinsmen from whom one may choose helpers, and widely dispersed clansmen amongst whom one can travel and live in order to harvest or collect different resources to offset seasonal shortages at home. Permanent residence in one locality is based upon the mobility of kin who can be sent to garner varied resources in different areas. For example, young men may be sent to live in fish camps on islands in the swamps or river during the months of May, June, and July, or November through March. Commercial fishing of the prized pale (Tilapia macrochir) takes place from August through November and, at this time, young men devote their energy to fishing in the main river. Older men, on the other hand, even today usually fish in nearby waters for immediate consumption only (see Figure 3).

There are almost three thousand Ibo in London, with men outnumbering women in the ratio of three to two. They tend to be between twenty-five and forty years old and to have been in Britain for between five and ten years. The majority came to obtain qualifications which would bring status on their return to Nigeria, but the Nigeria–Biafra war interrupted the process and as a result they are still here. If the defining characteristic of the immigrant is the tendency to remain in the new country, regardless of the intention to return, the Ibo are not immigrants but a migrant community in which departure is the norm although individual migrants make considerable investments in the new environment and some may never realise their ambition to return. In terms of the degree of their economic incorporation, cultural distinctiveness, ideological commitment to a ‘traditional’ way of life and belief in their own superiority in relation to outsiders, the Ibo have much in common with East African Asians; the difference lies in their declared intention to leave Britain and the success of many in achieving this ambition.

The stability of marriage is one of the most striking features of a rural Luo community, yet discussions of marital problems are endemic. Women frequently voice complaints about their husbands' behavior or make more general comments on the difficulty of marriage for women. By contrast, men voice few complaints about their own marriages, although they are well aware of women's attitudes. I was frequently cautioned by male friends not to pay too much attention to anything a woman might tell me since ‘women liked to complain.’

This essay attempts to interpret the apparent association between participation in the cattle trade of the Southern Sudan and the decreasing frequency of ghost marriage among the Atuot. The commentary on social change is peripheral to the analysis since this phenomenon is a constant rather than extraordinary social process. Arens (1976: 2) has recently emphasized the same point, adding ‘social change by its nature is a broad and ill-defined concept that cannot claim a distinct area of enquiry but rather allows for the choice of an infinite variety of areas for discussion.’ Because societies and cultures are products of historical processes they are likewise open and subject to perpetual change.

This study begins with a cursory discussion of recent Nilotic history followed by a summary description of the cattle trade. Certain forms of traditional Atuot marriage are then examined. In the conclusion, reference is drawn to data which support the assertion that involvement in this sector of the Sudanese economy directly influences the frequency of ghost marriage.