Indigenous collective land titling and the creation of leftovers

Insights from Paraguay and Cambodia

Bibliographic Data

ID18958351
AuthorsE Leemann (0000-0002-4811-3106, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology University of Zürich Zürich Switzerland, corresponding author), Cari Tusing (0000-0003-1057-625X, Institute of Anthropological Studies Austral University of Chile Valdivia Chile)
Year2024
Volume24
Issue1
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Agrarian Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1471-0358 • E-ISSN: 1471-0366
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/joac.12561
OpenAlexW4386069266
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited59

Collective land titling often drags on for decades, while private land concessions and holdings do not face the same problem, creating ‘leftovers’ of land available for Indigenous peoples to attempt to collectively title. In two ethnographic case studies in Cambodia and Paraguay, we analyse community‐based Indigenous land titling by focusing on the on‐the‐ground dynamics of property relations, Indigenous livelihood shifts and ecological change. In both countries, large agricultural players implemented a staggering change in local landscapes through deforestation, configuring new realities that in turn feed into local environments and titling processes. Adapting their livelihoods to living in the leftovers, in Cambodia, the Indigenous Bunong shifted from rice to rubber as they navigated the slow titling process. In Paraguay, some Indigenous Guarani shifted from corn to cattle by renting out their collectively titled land. The case studies show that the liberal titling approach to secure Indigenous lands overestimates the ability of title to remove land from capitalist logics such as the push to rent or sell, while some spaces of autonomy are opened. We critique the liberal approaches to formalising title, where Indigenous struggles for their ways of life are funnelled into fighting for collective property

Agriculture · Autonomy · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Geography · Indigenous · Land tenure · Land titling · Livelihood · Political science · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Law · Ecology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access