Customary Land Tenure in the LADM
Malumbo Chipofya, Javier Morales, Andre da Silva Mano, Christiaan Lemmen
Incorporating customary land tenure relations into Land Information Systems (LISs) presents knowledge modelling challenges arising from the complex and dynamic nature of customs. We present a case study using descriptions from Bronislaw Malinowski’s Coral Gardens and their Magic (1935) to illustrate how some complex land tenure concepts can be represented in LADM. In the society described by Malinowski kinship relationships play a central role and form the means by which identity, through membership to a clan, is reproduced. Residence, rights to farmland, and acquisition of titles and responsibilities all depend on clan membership. But more importantly, the responsibilities of the individual to the family and the clan form the central pillar of the sustainability of the society. These responsibilities introduce complications for the land information modeler because they are regulated by the conditions extant at the time of observation. For example, farmland is assigned on an annual basis and depends on the needs and capacities of each household of the community.
Our analysis shows how rights to farmland as described by Malinowski can be addressed and how to model other socially mediated aspects in the LADM. We present a model of the unregular annual allotment of farming plots to families. The plots that each family will farm in a given year will be allotted to them that same year at the Gardening Council. This requires consideration of time which we address with simple versioning.
Our case study brings out the realization that land rights can appear in different, separated dimensions. The spheres of production and consumption are separated in our case study. A substantial part of what is produced by one group is distributed through well-defined networks to end up in the food stores of a different and clearly distinguished group. Thus the tenure on land is not absolute in the sense that the benefits of certain entitlements are not enjoyed exclusively or in great part by those holding said entitlements. To complicate matters, the norms associated with one’s place of dwelling and marriage ensure the right to a dwelling without explicitly assigning a specific “real property” at which the right is exercised.
We explore possible solutions to this challenge, separating the different dimensions of the tenure on land (i.e. the stable land allocations, the production side, the consumption side, and the distribution dynamic) and using the LADM Basic Administrative Unit to represent dynamic people-to-land relations.
Event: 12th International FIG Workshop on LADM & 3D LA
Only personal, non-commercial use of this document is allowed.