List of tables; List of illustrations; Foreword by Alfred Harris; Preface; Introduction: A time-orientated anthropology: events, processes and history; Part I. Precolonial Economy, Politics and Law: 1. the nineteenth century on Kilimanjaro: ivory, slaves, cattle and warfare; 2. Practical norms and mystical ideas in Chagga law; 3. The powers and obligations of chiefs and commoners; Part II. Twentieth-century Transformations: Economy, Government, Courts and Cases: 4. The German period: chiefs, cattle, cash and courts; 5. The British colonial period and beyond: an economic overview; 6. The formal structure of local government and local courts; 7. The case reports; Part III. The modern uses of 'customary law': lineage, land and organisational control: 8. The localised patriline in the 1960s and 1970s; 9. The chronicle of the M - lineage; 10. The local lineage and the larger setting; Epilogue: From types to sequences: social change in anthropology; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

In this book, Sally Falk Moore examines a hundred years in the history of an African people, the Chagga of Kilimanjaro, in order to understand how their present system of 'customary' laws came to be and how the idea of custom was used in Tanzania's experiment with African socialism