• 1. A proper marriage: new institutional economic anthropology; 2. Transaction costs: the history of trade among the Orma; 3. Distribution of the gains from trade; 4. Agency theory: patron-client relations as a form of labor contracting; 5. Property rights: dismantling the commons; 6. Collective action: from community to state; 7. Conclusion: ideology and the economy.

"Jean Ensminger's account of economic transformations among the pastoral Orma of eastern Kenya applies a new theoretical perspective to the study of cultural change. In particular, the book's ethnographic accuracy and theoretical integration are outstanding. I dare say that it will have a major impact on anthropological studies of economic change as it goes far beyond a mere description of what changes, but looks also for explanations of why individual behavior and institutions evolve in one direction and not in another." Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie