Barbers and Bearers: Ecology and Ethnicity in an Islamic Society

Abstract

Opening ParagraphThis is an essay about strangers in a West African society. It asks how ethnicity constrains role selection and role performance. It asks why members of bounded ethnic groups occupy specific professions and exploit specific ecological niches in a multi-ethnic society. Field information from south-eastern Niger reveals the environmental and cultural elements which together generate a distribution of peoples into single ethnic and multi-ethnic occupations. My concern is with the processes of boundary maintenance among ethnic groups rather than with their distinct cultural contents. Barth has pointed out (1969) that in multi-ethnic interaction, ethnicity itself is a critical factor in status ascription. This is a simple and unassailable observation. The behavioural character of the ethnic unit must be demonstrated; it cannot merely be assumed a priori.