1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910213851603321

Autore

McDonnell Siobhan

Titolo

Kastom, property and ideology : land transformations in Melanesia / / edited by Siobhan McDonnell, Matthew G. Allen, Colin Filer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

ANU Press, 2017

Acton, Australia : , : Australian National University, , 2017

©2017

ISBN

1-76046-106-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (419 pages) : illustrations; digital file(s)

Disciplina

333.30995

Soggetti

Land tenure - Melanesia

Melanesia Religious life and customs

Melanesia Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Sommario/riassunto

The relationship between customary land tenure and ‘modern’ forms of landed property has been a major political issue in the ‘Spearhead’ states of Melanesia since the late colonial period, and is even more pressing today, as the region is subject to its own version of what is described in the international literature as a new ‘land rush’ or ‘land grab’ in developing countries. This volume aims to test the application of one particular theoretical framework to the Melanesian version of this phenomenon, which is the framework put forward by Derek Hall, Philip Hirsch and Tania Murray Li in their 2011 book, Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia. Since that framework emerged from studies of the agrarian transition in Southeast Asia, the key question addressed in this volume is whether ‘land transformations’ in Melanesia are proceeding in a similar direction, or whether they take a somewhat different form because of the particular nature of Melanesian political economies or social institutions. The contributors to this volume all deal with this question from the point of view of their own direct engagement with different aspects of the land policy process in particular countries. Aside from discussion



of the agrarian transition in Melanesia, particular attention is also paid to the growing problem of land access in urban areas and the gendered nature of landed property relations in this region.