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Chapter One. The Material Background |
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land tenure in systems of slash and burn; property in general |
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In many areas slash-and-burn cultivation on frequently shifted fields is associated with a system of communal ownership of land and often also with a considerable instability of settlements. Ownership may be vested in a territorial group, a village, a clan, or a chief, who, though nominally the proprietor of the entire village land, is under an obligation to distribute it for cultivation to his subjects. Tribes, such as the Aos, the southern neighbors of the Konyak, recognize private as well as communal rights in land, but there are tribes, such as the Daflas in the hills north of the Brahmaputra, who lack the concept of private property in land. They have so little attachment to the soil that settlements are very impermanent, and it is rare for two or three successive generations to remain resident in the same area. |
