ABSTRACT
Sanctions among Migrants There is a Luo proverb which states that friends will help you more than brothers. This refers to the ambivalence in relations among brothers of a homestead: on the one hand they are ex pected to act in defence of common interests, on the other they are in competition for the resources represented by these interests. By contrast, friendships can be made and broken relatively easily without disrupting corporate property interests. As long as brothers each have a self-interest in preserving some degree of unity, they act as each other’s keepers, condemning behaviour which might seem to disrupt this unity. Friendships rarely have an irreplaceable economic basis. They are established much more for leisure pursuits, unbiased advice, and as an escape from the unremitting demands of kin.
