In no specific case in the villages is one of the three sets of rules deliberately and consistently applied. Cases which are referred to the courts are obviously an exception, but in my experience very few village cases are so referred, and I cannot quote one instance. Moreover, to go to court is not to apply the state rules but to employ others to do so. To set forth the formal rules of one or all of these systems would not tell us what in fact happens. Indeed it is difficult to find out what does happen.
People may assert claims under any rules, and every settlement therefore involves ignoring or adjusting somebody's claims. Discussions are not normally public and open, and people avoid questions about specific examples, answering in general terms. Since I did not witness an actual division, and since some of the implications and problems did not strike me until I came to write, I have had to depend to some extent on reconstruction and guesswork. But my guesses are founded on a general knowledge of village society.
The transmission of power and prestige is more complex, and more fundamental for village social structure. The system worked to prevent a stable hereditary hierarchy. I shall deal first with inheritance, a key element in the argument, and then move on to the wider question of long-term mobility in village society.