On the day which marks the end of Ramazan, called in Turkey Sheker Bayrami, the villagers visit each other in peace, and all should shake hands and wish each other a blessed feast day. In Sakaltutan, where I witnessed this ceremony, numbers are small enough for this to be possible. All households who own guest rooms of any kind open them, and one senior man sits there to welcome visitors, while parties of younger men tour the village calling at each guest room. These parties consisted mainly of agnates; even those normally on rather cool terms were to be seen together on this day. Similarly, at the Feast of Sacrifice, the Kurban Bayrami , which follows twelve weeks later, people share animals for sacrifice. Once again, many of the groups had an agnatic core; but since seven householders share an ox or cow, and a sheep serves for one household only, strictly agnatic groups are arithmetically impossible.
All these co-operative activities then have an agnatic bias; but it is only a bias. None of them are in theory or practice tied to particular roles, and they are conspicuous among agnates solely because agnates are in general closer to each other than to anyone else.