Current State of the Community and the Section System

Although the absence of men's dances is not mentioned as a particularly important part of the phenomenon, everyone heard to comment on the general

state of the community notes a distinct decline. A number of sources for this have now been seen.

It is of considerable interest to note that two of the most important sources concern the boundaries of the community and the statuses of those who are at those boundaries. It would be more than bold to single out some particular aspect of community life or set of circumstances as sufficient to have brought about the state of the community as at least some members currently assess it. But this does not mean that particular elements cannot be singled out as having played identifiable parts. I will argue that the nature of the relations between the sections played one of these roles and that this, in turn, is shaped by the statuses of those who compose the sections.

Another important role will be shown to have been played by the nature of membership in the group. Here the issue is the group's boundary, as this is expressed in the status of group members. There are, as suggested above, two sets of individuals whose category membership presents difficulties. The first are those with known slave forebears. They are understood by group members as seeing themselves as belonging to the group but whose membership is denied by a majority of group members. The second problem set is composed of the Swahili Arabs. They are seen by a majority of community members as rightfully belonging, but in their own assignment they do not.