Drawing on the insights offered by Durkheim, Erikson, Simmel, and Coser about possible integration effects on social groups of acts of conflict and deviance committed within and against them, this paper examines some consequences of deviant behavior and attendant sanctions in a number of small-scale tribal societies in Africa. Data drawn from ethnographic studies indicate that when the parties in dispute are members of closely linked social units, deviance and mechanisms of sanctioning enhance social integration within and between the units involved, and that when disputing parties are members of distantly related social units, deviance and mechanisms of sanctioning operate to preserve social distance and animosities. A model is proposed to conceptualize these relationships.