Agrarian Tenure Institution Conflict Frames, and Communitarian Identities

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd A. Eisenstadt

Drawing on a survey of more than 4,000 respondents, this article argues that contrary to claims by the 1994 Zapatista insurgency, indigenous and nonindigenous respondents in southern Mexico have been united more by socioeconomic and land tenure institution variables than by ethnic identity. Based on statistical models, it concludes that in rural southern Mexico, ethnicity alone is less important in shaping peoples' attitudes than whether the dominant land tenure institutions are the “communitarian” state-penetrated ejidos (communitarian collective farms) of Chiapas or the more “individualist” so-called communal lands of Oaxaca. It concludes by affirming that—contrary to many analysts of Chiapas's 1994 indigenous rebellion—external influences (here state-established land tenure institutions) can trump ideology in framing social movements. Rural Chiapas's prevalent communitarian attitudes seem to have resulted partly from exogenous land tenure institutions (ejidos) rather than from endogenous indigenous identities alone, as claimed by Zapatistas and scholars.

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-185
Author(s):  
George Barrie

The facts in this case, which fell to be decided by the Supreme Court of Namibia in November 2018, can be succinctly put: in 1985, Ms Kashela’s late father was allocated a piece of land as part of communal land by the Mafwe Traditional Authority (MTA) in the Caprivi region of the then-South West Africa (now Namibia). In 1985, the Caprivi region fell under the then-South West Africa Administration. Following the independence of Namibia on 21 March 1990, all communal lands became property of the state of Namibia by virtue of section 124 of the Constitution of Namibia Act 1 of 1990, read with Schedule 5 of the Constitution. Paragraph (3) of Schedule 5 of the Constitution states that the afore-mentioned communal lands became property of the state “subject to any existing right, charge, obligation or trust existing on or over such property”.


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 653-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renaud Lapeyre

Taking tourism in Namibian rural areas as an empirical case study, this paper analyses the main factors that explain the economic outcome in a negotiation process in which local communities and private operators bargain over the distribution of income generated through a partnership lodge. While much research has focused on the required preconditions (especially property rights) and efficiency effects of tourism partnerships, a Nash bargaining model allows us to assess the distributive effects of such contracts. In particular, variables such as insecure community land tenure, and the resulting reduced value of land, the remoteness of lodges and the community's impatience and attitude towards risk could explain why rural communities have not so far captured the lion's share from tourism activities in communal lands. Finally, the paper shows that future research will be needed to complete the model in order to provide an account of the contractual problems that limit the efficiency of tourism partnerships in rural areas – transaction costs and underinvestment.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Alter Kahraman

Abstract This article focuses on two Muslim groups, Azeris and Muslim Ajarians, who are differently perceived and treated in post-Soviet Georgia. Georgian ethno-religious nationalism bases Georgianness on an ethnic affiliation to Kartvelian roots and religious adherence to Georgian Orthodoxy, and determines one’s level of inclusion in the nation accordingly; those who do not fulfill these criteria, such as Azeris, are excluded from the nation. Muslim Ajarians, despite being Georgians, also face exclusion from Georgian identity. Based on the concept of ethnodoxy, which is defined as linking of “a group’s ethnic identity to its dominant religion,” this article argues that Muslim Ajarians, who are Georgian Muslims, an unaccepted category in Georgia, receive differential treatment by their Christian fellows, whereas recognition of the religion and ethnicity of Azeris is a factor that comparatively diminishes the pressure on the community. This research demonstrates that the visibility of Muslim Ajarians’ religious practices in the public space and the construction of places of worship is less tolerated than in the case of Azeris, who have no means of becoming “proper Georgians.” The findings of fieldwork in Georgia manifested that, although minorities have various problems in Georgia, Muslim Ajarians are subjected to more differential treatment than Azeris.


Africa ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Cheater

INTRODUCTIONIn 1930 the Land Apportionment Act created freehold areas exclusively for blacks, known as the ‘native purchase areas’. Forty-seven years later these sixty-six separate areas lost their legal identity when the Land Tenure Amendment Act consolidated them, and the formerly ‘European’ commercial farms, into the ‘general area’ distinct from the communally held ‘Tribal Trust Land’. Today, although the new Government has not yet touched Zimbabwe's land law, it has popularized new terms to describe these three categories: ‘rural farmers’ describes the peasantry in the communal lands; ‘small-scale commercial farmers’ locates freeholders in the former African purchase lands; and ‘large-scale commercial farmers’ are those whites– and handful of blacks – who work land in what used to be the ‘European area’. The small-scale commercial farmers, however, remain exclusively black. Thus we can talk of the African purchase lands as if they had not been affected by the Land Tenure Amendment Act of 1977.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 3048-3056
Author(s):  
Whatmore Chikwature ◽  
Chikwature E

This research study sought to determine the role of women in the sustainable management of indigenous woodlands in Manicaland province using Marange communal lands as a point of reference. In this study three traditional leaders, three women’s groups and seventy community women were used as research subjects. Questionnaires were used to gather data from the local women from the three selected villages. Interviews were also used to collect information from traditional leaders and women’s group leaders. These interviews were important in complementing data collected through questionnaires. Field observations were also carried out to enrich the data collected through interviews and questionnaires. The study showed that while women played a vital role in the sustainable management of indigenous woodlands in Marange communal lands, they faced various constraints including greater workload at home with little time to pursue activities outside the family. Therefore the study recommends that since women are more intimately involved with the environment through their day to day activities like fuel wood collection, they should be given due recognition in decision making processes. Finally, it is also recommended that the land tenure system should be redesigned to cater for female heads of households.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
CASIS

The purpose of this analysis is to differentiate social movements. In this instance, we will be using the hippie/counterculture movements during the 1960s and 1970s in Canada, and those that are occurring in the second decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, this analysis distinguishes right-wing extremist movements in 2016 from groups like the Hippie Movement and the Black Panther Party Movement. Specific reference will be made to contrast the social movements of the twenty-first century that are non-political in nature but are identity-based, versus movements during the 60s and 70s that were political by design and intent. Due to the non-political nature of twenty-first century Violent Transnational Social Movements, they might be characterized as fifth generation warfare, which we identify as identity-based social movements in violent conflict with other identity based social movements, this violence may be soft or hard. ‘Soft violence damages the fabric of relationships between communities as entrenches or highlights the superiority of one group over another without kinetic impact. Soft violence is harmful activities to others which stops short of physical violence’. (Kelshall, 2019) Hard violence is then recognized as when soft violence tactics result in physical violence. Insurgencies are groups that challenge and/or resist the authority of the state. There are different levels of insurgencies; and on the extreme end, there is the resistance of systemic authority.


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