Tigisayta is the eponymous founding ancestor of one of the nine exogamous patriclans (kanta) into which Konso society is divided. Each clan is headed by a hereditary priest-chief, the poqalla, who traces descent from the clan founder and whose blessing sustains the lineage, ward and town; the poqalla mediates between the living and Waaqa and presides over the terraced walled towns and their sacred groves. Konso public life is further ordered by a generation-grading system of the gada type through which men pass in named grades. Distinguished men of such lineages were commemorated after death by waka, carved hardwood grave-figures set up in groups alongside images of their wives and slain foes. The clan name, like those of the other Konso lineages, is recorded with orthographic variation across the ethnographic literature.