This is a study of the role of law in African society. It is a work in the ethnology of law. Its central theme is that the same social processes which prevent the total regulation of society are those that re-shape and transform the efforts to regulate. Sally Falk Moore's study was originally published in 1978. New edition published in association with the International African Institute Germany: Lit Verlag; North America: Transaction Books
Sally Falk Moore is professor of anthropology emerita at Harvard University and affiliated professor at Harvard Law School. A specialist in legal and political anthropology, she has done fieldwork in East Africa and consulting in West Africa. Her books include Law as Process, Social Facts and Fabrications; “Customary” Law on Kilimanjaro, 1880-1980; Anthropology and Africa; and Law and Anthropology: A Reader.