Broader Consequences of Social Relationships

As important as social relationships are in themselves, their significance is by no means limited to participants' concern with the specific relationships

occurring at the moment. Many Swahili care little about the simplex relationships with grocery clerks, bus conductors, and tailors, but most of them do care about the results of those relationships, about what they get from participating in them. They care about the food they buy, the trips across town that they take, and the clothing that they wear.

To get these things, they must sustain relationships with the clerks, conductors, and tailors long enough to accomplish their ends, and this depends on meeting some of the expectations in the appropriate roles. One may care little for clerks' good opinions, but one turns over to them the money called for and refrains from too much quarrelsomeness to avoid trouble while getting the desired things they control. More than this, to some extent, one's interest in the food, trips, and clothing usually derives in some part from one's relationships with those who share meals, live in the places traveled to, and whose opinions about clothing matter. Finding a basis for getting along with occupants of statuses that matter little in themselves is, in fact, essential to getting along with occupants of statuses that matter a great deal.