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Chapter Two. The Social Structure and its Units |
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villages, a territorial, but not economic unit |
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The village was a territorial unit claiming an exclusive right to a clearly delimited tract of land, and in the case of a powerful village also exercising the right of overlordship over a wider territory settled by tributary villages. Only in a very restricted sense could a village be regarded as an economic unit. The village council determined which part of the village land was to be cleared for cultivation, but this was its only major policy decision affecting the economic activities of the community. Agricultural work was not organized at the village level, and communal efforts, as distinct from those made by individual families, always involved the cooperation of the members of a morung or sometimes the members of two morungs which stood in a relationship of reciprocal obligations. |
