ABSTRACT
One way of analysing the relationship as well as the parallels between beer-drinks and co-operative labour is through the individual homestead, returning to the general theme of ‘building the homestead’. Following Englund's (1999) example, it is helpful to conceptualise the homestead as a composite entity. It is evident that both beer drinks and co-operative work constitute the homestead in a particular way. As noted above, the basic unit of production in rural Transkei is the household, but its productive activities, as has been clear in the previous two chapters, are not simply a material matter but also a social and moral one. The individual homestead as the productive unit is inseparable from the social relationships that constitute it. In the course of agricultural and other work, and as a participant in a beer-drinking circuit, it draws on and contributes to other homesteads with which it has relationships, and in so doing constitutes itself as a social entity, while its inhabitants are constituted as moral persons at the same time. This explains perfectly the otherwise puzzling fact that in Shixini, even people who do not drink beer both attend and host beer drinks, call people for sips when it is their turn with the beaker, and are called by others in return.
