The kinship groups of the To Pamona had no ranked centre and no enduring regalia or estate to objectify their constituent alliances. I have characterized the constituent 'corporate kinship groups' of the To Pamona as 'proto-Houses' elsewhere (Schrauwers 1997). The proto-House attempted to establish a political 'centre', to assert their Househood and hence relations of absolute rank, but ultimately broke into smaller egalitarian units tied only by ritual exchanges during feasts. It failed to maintain its cohesion as a House because feasting and the exchange of elite goods by which individual status was established, a political centre defined, and the kinship group tied together, dissipated the communal estate of the group. Unlike the regalia of Luwu', the elite goods H(h)ouses, E(e)states and class 79 which made up the To Pamona estate were exchange goods (movable property), rather than inalienable possessions (immovable property). Read more click here
