Dynamic and Flexible Aspects of Land and Marine Tenure at West Nggela: Implications for Marine Resource Management.

Dynamic and Flexible Aspects of Land and Marine Tenure at West Nggela: Implications for Marine Resource Management. ABSTRACT At West Nggela, access to high value marine invertebrate invertebrate(ĭn'vûr`təbrət, –brāt'), any animal lacking a backbone. The invertebrates include the tunicates and lancelets of phylum Chordata, as well as all animal phyla other than Chordata. stocks iscontrolled by consanguineal corporate groups holding primary rights(which include rights of exclusion) over reefs bearing these stocks.Disputes over primary rights appear to result in a breakdown inmanagement practices, resulting in overfishing Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans. More precise biological and bioeconomic terms define 'acceptable level'. and severe depletion ofstocks. An understanding of the common causes of disputes is thereforeof considerable importance to marine resource management, anddevelopment, in this region. This paper outlines first the essential, or 'ideal',processes of descent reckoning and property transfer that underpin theCustomary Marine Tenure (CMT CMTCertified Medical Transcriptionist. CMTabbr.Certified Medical TranscriptionistCMTCalifornia mastitis test. ) system at West Nggela as they arepresented to 'outsiders' such as government officials andanthropologists. It then deals with some of the many exceptions to thisnorm, and the ways these variations can contribute to disputes overprimary rights to property. The pressures of economic development, andthe resultant commodification Commodification (or commoditization) is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, or, in other words, to assign value. As the word commodity has distinct meanings in business and in Marxist theory, commodification of resources and property, in our viewcatalyse catalyseor US -lyzeVerb[-lysing, -lysed] or -lyzing, -lyzed to influence (a chemical reaction) by catalysisVerb 1. the conflict between the ideal, simplified model and thecomplexity of actual praxis prax��is?n. pl. prax��es1. Practical application or exercise of a branch of learning.2. Habitual or established practice; custom. in respect to property rights. Recentdramatic increases in the perceived value of many properties as a resultof proposed lucrative developments may underlie present day conflictswhich in the past would not have arisen. Examples are drawn frominterview data as well as case studies of two formal property disputeswhich were heard in local courts at West Nggela in 1995. INTRODUCTION Land disputes are commonplace in many parts of the Solomon Islands Solomon Islands,independent Commonwealth nation (2005 est. pop. 538,000), c.15,500 sq mi (40,150 sq km), SW Pacific, E of New Guinea. The islands that constitute the nation of the Solomon Islands—Guadalcanal, Malaita, New Georgia, the Santa Cruz Islands, .[1] In the course of discussions about, and attempts to resolve suchdisputes, people assert rights of access to, and use of property on thebasis of systems of descent reckoning and customary land transfer. [2]They describe their systems of tenure and resource management as'traditional' (i.e. fixed and enduring), and reinforce thisunderstanding by use of terms such as kastom (White 1991: 208), tabu andtribe. [3] The colonial systems of ajudication established by theBritish that favoured a view of land rights, stressing unilinealdescent, and presumed simple inheritance as the major means of acquiringland (cf. Hviding 1996: 348-9), have in many respects been accepted bypeople. The proximity of Nggela to the British administrativeheadquarters at Tulagi ensured that the legal system of colonial courtswas regularly imposed in local disputes. The early insistence on asimplified 'code' of rules stressing unilineal inheritance hasa long history. People now perceive and represent them as thequintessential principles in 'customary law'. Hviding'sreading of this simplifying or essentialising tendency as'strategic,' or a form of 'resistance' must beexamined in terms of effects. He suggests that Solomon Islanders Islanders may refer to: New York Islanders, a ice hockey team based in Uniondale, New York that plays on the National Hockey League (NHL). Puerto Rico Islanders, a Puerto Rican soccer team in the USL First Division, that currently play their home games at Juan Ramon mightdo this in contexts where they are negotiating with multi-nationalresource developers because they believe '... Europeans can onlycomprehend customary land tenure land tenure:see tenure, in law. in terms of simple models of unilinealdescent', but this lacks credibility. While satisfying liberalWestern schadenfreude about the clever forms of postcolonial post��co��lo��ni��al?adj.Of, relating to, or being the time following the establishment of independence in a colony: postcolonial economics.oppositionto outside exploiters, he ignores the fact that when such ploys areaccepted they effectively narrow the number of claimants, reduce thenumber of 'landowners' who receive benefits from anytransaction and often generate numerous disputes within the community.In effect they install and 'codify' a system that benefitsoutside resource developers and excludes local people whose claims reston the more esoteric aspects of the system as praxis. 'New' ideas of fixity fix��i��ty?n. pl. fix��i��ties1. The quality or condition of being fixed.2. Something fixed or immovable. are imposed upon and melded withformer notions of inclusive rights of access and usufruct A Civil Law term referring to the right of one individual to use and enjoy the property of another, provided its substance is neither impaired nor altered.For example, a usufructuary right , and so the'system' entails numerous departures from the stated'customary laws'. In some areas of the Solomons the need fortenure clarification has only recently been tested in the context ofdevelopment projects. In the Nggela case the claim of a 'customarysystem' of laws has been firmly established over the period sincecolonisation. Melanesian systems of descent reckoning and property transfer areboth complex and flexible (Scheffler 1971; Bulmer 1982; Hviding 1993,1996: 132). So despite the essentialist understanding of'customary' as fixed (cf. Vayda 1990; Hviding 1996) that isimplied when people talk about their rights to land and resources inabstract contexts, those systems remain subject to diverseinterpretations by protagonists to disputes. The strategic departuresfrom the essential 'laws' of property and tenure are moreovermostly presented in terms that draw on the underlying customary praxis.The customary tenure system presented by an anthropological analysisthus incorporates observed practices in addition to stated norms.However in this paper we contrast the normative system with the'rules' that are appealed to in formal disputes in localcourts. The fact that the courts are increasingly the site for both theassertion of the simplified system and its contestation indicates theways that commodification of land and re efs compromises the informalresolution of disputes by local leaders. In the Solomons, as in PapuaNew Guinea Papua New Guinea(păp`ə, –y , disputes and tensions over marine resources are more oftenbetween local people than against foreign interests. The need for cashmeans that people compete with each other in order to narrow claimantsfor cash benefits that might flow from development projects. At West Nggela, as in many parts of the Pacific, people regardreefs as an extension of the land, and boundaries of coastal propertiesare extended seawards to divide reefs, sea, offshore islands, and theresources associated with these (Allan 1957; Johannes 1978; Chapman1985; Ruddle rud��dle? also red��dle or rad��dlen.Red ocherous iron ore, used in dyeing and marking.tr.v. rud��dled, rud��dling, rud��dlesTo dye or mark with or as if with red ocher: 1988, 1993; Baines 1990). Land disputes are therefore themain way that disputes over marine resources are expressed, as conflictover a specific area of land automatically includes the concomitantrights over adjacent sea, reefs and offshore islands. At the presenttime, at least, the rules governing access to reefs and their associatedresources, and the rationale for these rules, are similar to thoseoperating in the terrestrial domain. Indeed, as the case studiespresented here make clear, disputes about land may often be connectedto, or require resolution of, questions concerning marine tenure. Theflexibility, dynamism and pragmatism inherent in the practice ofestablishing rights over land, reef or sea are most apparent whereeconomic opportunity is associated with property development (Dalzell1994; Turner 1994; Akimichi 1995). The forms of development that are both feasible and encouraged byexternal funding agencies and investors have in recent years requiredthat contractual agreements be made with identified landowners orlandowning groups. In particular, the World Bank has represented thesystems of land ownership and resource rights that exist in the Pacificto be one of the major impediments to economic development. In theSolomons, logging, fisheries and mining have all involved theestablishment of rights that can be transferred in the context ofresource development. While some, especially logging companies, haveflouted legal contracts, others have negotiated in terms of thetraditional rights over the resource. In such situations, externalanthropological consultants are often required to identify the tenuresystem in order to facilitate contractual arrangements. Often in thiscontext, people who have customary tenure will represent their system inits essential form. The normative statements of tenure and transmissionare given as if they constitute a code that is immutable IMMUTABLE. What cannot be removed, what is unchangeable. The laws of God being perfect, are immutable, but no human law can be so considered. . Severaldifficulties are associated with this. The people who are most likely tobe negotiating are those who are educated and speak English. Often thesystem is described in terms that render it spuriously analogous toWestern rights in land as transferable property with a notional monetaryvalue. As a further complication, the representation of customary law innegotiating contracts with outsiders often infers a property relation toland, which is contradicted by the most common forms of transferassociated with inter-clan feasting. Several problems emerge from this, especially when the agreementinvolves construction of buildings or infrastructure for the project.Effectively, much tourist development in the Solomons alienates land andadjacent beaches and reefs, in order to establish a resort. The patternsof land ownership and marine tenure incorporate principles of transfer,contestation, and assertion of retrospective rights that arecharacteristically volatile and adaptive to changing socialcircumstances. Mutual agreement and/or legal claim through the LocalCourt establish these rights. The social dimensions of tenure systemsare those that determine practice, and are very often not susceptible toneat codification The collection and systematic arrangement, usually by subject, of the laws of a state or country, or the statutory provisions, rules, and regulations that govern a specific area or subject of law or practice. . The point we want to make is that the range ofprinciples invoked in presentations (to outsiders) of matrilineal mat��ri��lin��e��aladj.Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the maternal line. rightsare those which are least likely to be called upon in any conflict overtenure or - as projects are set up - distribution of the financialbenefits of an economic development. So, the range of dispu tes and theprinciples underlying their resolution need to be thoroughly canvassed,in the interests of equity for all villagers involved and formulation ofcontracts with outsiders. As this paper draws on research thatconcentrated on fisheries we stress the implications for fisheriesmanagement. We illustrate the way that the simple rules that imply thatrights to land and adjoining reefs are transmitted by inheritance, andthat transfer is confined to affines who have given feasts to theowners, are inadequate protection of marine rights even in a villagecontext. But the forms of primary resource exploitation currently beingdeveloped across the Pacific mean that there are analogous cases forterrestrial resources, especially timber. Fisheries and timber are bothindustries that can be worked on a small scale and the resources areused for subsistence as well as being an income source for local people.Depletion and destruction of reefs and forests have multi-leveledeconomic impacts. In many instances in Melanesia, particularly in PapuaNew Guinea (viz. Bougainville), property transactions with developersinitially excluded the principles of flexibility that ensured that alltenure was a reflection of social dynamics Social dynamics is the study of the ability of a society to react to inner and outer changes and deal with its regulation mechanisms. Social dynamics is a mathematically inspired approach to analyse societies, building upon systems theory and sociology. at any specific time. Theseare precisely the principles that become the basis of disputes when thebenefits of development are later perceived as unjustly restricted. Tourism, specifically the establishment of small-scale touristresorts on coastal estates, appears to be one of the most coveted recentsources of development at Nggela. The disputes described and discussedhere were triggered by proposals to develop sites as tourist resorts.Because of the future earning capacity of the businesses associated withthe resorts, [4] as well as the construction of houses and otherbuildings, the perceived value of the sites is considerably enhanced.However, given that sales of marine products, such as finfish finfishfish with fins, that is teleosts, elasmobranches, holocephalids, agnathids and cephalochordates; also a fish marketer's term used to include that section of marketable fish which is neither shellfish nor molluscs. andtrochus, are among the main sources of cash income in this area, andthat tourism invariably in��var��i��a��ble?adj.Not changing or subject to change; constant.in��vari��a��bil entails access to the sea for recreationalpurposes, [5] the land disputes are also intrinsically disputes overmarine resources. In this paper we begin by describing the essential or idealproperty tenure system at Nggela. We then summarise and analyse twoformal disputes as case studies and, in the discussion, examine some ofthe important factors at play in the escalation of competing claims intocourt cases. The impact of disputes on the management of high-value reefresources is discussed in detail. The flexibility and dynamism inherentin the practice of dispute resolution is crucial to a full understandingof the marine tenure system. It should be taken into account by fisheryadvisers and managers who deal with problems related to overexploitationof marine resources in this part of the world (Adams et al. 1992;Richards et al. 1994; Dalzell et al. 1996). We gathered genealogical ge��ne��al��o��gy?n. pl. ge��ne��al��o��gies1. A record or table of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; a family tree.2. Direct descent from an ancestor; lineage or pedigree. data during three stays at West Nggelatotalling 15 months, between September 1994 and March 1996. Interviewswere conducted in the Nggela language with some recourse to SolomonPijin. In all interviews kin relations were primarily determined byasking questions relating to relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accego's father, mother and child. Twoformal land disputes occurred during fieldwork, [6] each of whichconcerned land with fringing reef fring��ing reefn.A coral reef formed close to a shoreline.fringing reef?A coral reef formed close to the shoreline of an island or continent. . Genealogies of senior members of eachof the clans involved in the conflicts investigated were constructed anddiscussed. In addition, the (Local Court) judge for one of the landcases was interviewed following the hearing. A copy of a report written(in English) by the judge (Acquisition Officer) of the second hearing, acase heard in the Provincial Court The Provincial and Territorial Courts in Canada are local trial "inferior" or "lower" courts of limited jurisdiction established in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. , provides further insights into theprocesses and principles operating. Fieldwork also involved elicitingthe locations of many land and reef boundaries, and we examine thenotions of fixed boundaries in relation to genealogica l information andobservations of people engaged in harvesting activities on the variousproperties. The description of the essential property tenure system at WestNggela derives principally from discussions and interviews with Nggelapeople and, as such, necessarily represents a simplified version of thesystem. There are rules and principles that were not included inaccounts because they are complex and context-sensitive and thereforedifficult or impossible to communicate in an abstracted setting. As isoften the case in Melanesian communities, people were able to elucidateprinciples in terms of specific cases or when explaining apparentanomalies. Some of these additional rules and principles were deducedupon analysis of genealogical data and discussions of points raised inthe court cases, and are presented in subsequent sections as theydemonstrate clearly the dynamism that informs all appeals to'laws'. THE ESSENTIALS OF LAND AND MARINE TENURE AT NGGELA At Nggela, at the time of fieldwork, primary rights to property,and clan affiliation, were inherited matrilineally mat��ri��lin��e��al?adj.Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the maternal line.mat . People coulddescribe matrilineages (Susu) up to 11 generations deep. There wereseven named clans (Kema), and within each of these a number of subclans(Vike - literally to split, or pull apart). The four older clans(Gaubata, Kakau, Hogokama and Hogokiki) each comprised seven subclans.Two of the three younger clans (Hibo and Lahi), each of which wasderived from an older clan, had four subclans, and the third (HogokikiGunu) had only one. Most people spoke openly about their clanaffiliation, but many people were reluctant to divulge the name of theirsubclan. Traditionally each subclan had a named spirit,('devil' in Solomons Pijin or Keramo in Nggela), one or moresacred (and usually secret) shrines in the bush, an ancestral warrior orhero (Malagai) and a chief (Vunagi). Most of these details (as well asland and sea boundaries in a few cases) were usually kept secret butwere sometimes p roduced as 'trump cards' in the event of aland dispute. These concepts form the core of ideas about'customary law' and are the basis for the stress placed onunilineality in representations of land tenure and transmission ofprimary rights. At Nggela, as in most other parts of the central and easternSolomons, bridewealth was given to the parents of the bride, and mostbrides moved from their own village to that of their husband. Uxorilocalresidence occurs in some relatively sparsely populated areas where theimmediate families of wives have plenty of land. Endogamous en��dog��a��my?n.1. Anthropology Marriage within a particular group in accordance with custom or law.2. Botany Fertilization resulting from pollination among flowers of the same plant.3. (intra-clan)marriage choices were said to be preferred, including marriage ofcross-cousins, but as with residence patterns, exceptions were quitecommon. The frequent dispersal of women and their children away frominherited property implied a relatively important role for the customarymechanism of property transfer, the huihui. A huihui transaction entailscustomary payment (usually comprising pigs, baskets of food and money),in the presence of many witnesses, including local chiefs and theregional paramount chief A paramount chief is the highest-level traditional (usually tribal) chief or political leader in a regional or local polity or country typically administered politically with a chief-based system. , in exchange for primary rights to property.Where a number of people contributed to the total prestation, each shareof the payment equated to a share (proportional to the amount paid) inprimary rights to the property. Men commonly acquired land from theirfathers, or from their fathers' matrilateral kin. However, awoman's family (meaning in this context her mother, and siblings)would sometimes gain land from her husband's clan, and subsequentlythis land would be heritable her��i��ta��bleadj.1. Capable of being passed from one generation to the next; hereditary.2. Capable of inheriting or taking by inheritance. matrilineally. If a matriline (Susu)terminated due to failure to produce daughters, the property typicallyreverted to the clan from which it was acquired. Land was also acquiredfrom clans other than those of affines or patrilateral kin. Mostconflicts over rights to properties seemed to focus on differences ofopinion over whose ancestor contributed to the initial prestation. Theantiquity of some transactions meant that disagreements were sometimesimpossible to resolve, since all witnesses were long since dead. Many people were also gardening on and fishing near to land andreef to which they had use rights but not primary rights. Although therewere some exceptions it was usually only people who held primary rightswho could install a tabu (prohibition) on harvesting particularhigh-value sedentary reef resources, such as trochus, [7] and, when thetabu was lifted, exercise first harvesting rights over the resource.Sons, however, routinely exercised primary rights over their fathersproperties by virtue of the relationship and their residence in hisvillage. In such cases, sons were expected to make a huihui for theserights before the father died. Thus the practice can be seen as restingon patrifiliation and residence but in the minds of Nggela people isexplained exclusively in terms of the implied intention of makinghuihui. Within matrilineal groups (susu), political power and authorityover the exercising of primary rights appeared to be most commonly inthe hands of the senior males - Keesing's (1975: 63) 'board ofdirectors'. Men usually (there were a small number of exceptions)spoke, and made decisions, 'on behalf of' sisters, mothers,and wives during court cases. They also controlled allocation, withinthe susu, of rights to declare tabus and harvest trochus. In some caseshusbands also exercised rights of exclusion over their wives'land/reef, despite belonging to a different clan. Gender ideologieswhich privilege male authority can thus obscure the property rights atissue. When a man is resident on his wife's land, exploiting itsresources and making decisions about its use, his role in a dispute istechnically as agent for his wife and children. But given the fact thathouseholds of husband, wife and children constitute a basic unit ofproduction and consumption at the level of everyday subsistence, clearlyhis own interests are also at stake. A domestic economic interest inpreserving or maintaining the rights of his wife and children iscompromised however by the institution of huihui which enables him tomake prestations that will eventually alienate a section of their land(and adjacent reefs) to his own susu. DISPUTES On the reefs that were the subjects of formal disputes at the timeof fieldwork, few or no trochus could be found, and we consider this wasthe result of overfishing due to a breakdown in the tabu system (Foale1997; Foale and Day 1997). The absence of trochus from these reefs wassaid by Nggela informants to be due to rampant poaching poaching:see cooking. which wasjustified (in the minds of poachers) by the fact that no-one could claimrights of exclusion on those reefs until the dispute was resolved.'Poachers' in this case may well have included members of eachof the corporate groups disputing the land and reef in question. The twodisputes that were heard in 1995 at West Nggela illustrate thevolatility of ideas about rights and the contestation over rules thatare represented in normative statements as fixed and immutable. Our aimis to understand sources of conflict and show how these complicate theessentialist model of land and marine tenure usually offered by Nggelapeople. In view of the ways that development projects which require aspecified area to be sold or leased tend to seek 'ownership'that best fits Western models, the actual mutability and contestabilityof rights, and the ways these affect resource management, may be moreimportant in determining the 'systems' of Melanesian tenure asthey are presented. THE TAPURU LAND CASE Tapuru is a small block of land on Sandfly sandfly/sand��fly/ (sand��fli) any of various two-winged flies, especially of the genus Phlebotomus. sandflyPhlebotomus spp. Culicoides, Simulium and Austrosimulium spp. Island (Fig. 1) whichincludes a mangrove-fringed saltwater lake that was deemed by one of theparties in the dispute (A, Fig. 2) as an ideal setting for a touristresort. A and his father C commenced negotiations with a foreignbusinessman, to build and run a resort on the land near the lake. Thenegotiations were discovered by D and E who disputed A's, and hismother B's (and her siblings'), claim to be the only peopleholding primary rights over Tapuru. D and E claimed that they too heldprimary rights and should have been consulted before any developmentproposal went ahead. Their complaint was taken to the Local Court andthe hearing was presided over by three local judges, all from WestNggela. Tapuru was originally purchased by G and her sisters, by huihui(Fig. 2). However, the largest contribution to the total price was madeby the husband of their second cousin second cousinn.1. A child of a first cousin of one's parent.2. A child of one's first cousin; a first cousin once removed. , F, whose daughters then acquiredprimary rights, which were then inherited matrilinealy by D and E. Cclaimed that his father, H, and father's brother, I, presided overa formal 'redistribution' ceremony of sorts, in 1968. at whichprimary rights to several blocks of land belonging to the Hibo clan (andincluding Tapuru) were re-allocated, and he produced documentation ofthe details of this ceremony for the court hearing. He claimed that aspart of the redistribution, all primary rights to Tapuru belonging todescendants of F were formally relinquished (by H and I) and handed overto the descendants of G. This evidence was thrown out by the court,since the 'redistribution' ceremony did not comply with therequirements of a proper huihui ceremony, lacking both customary paymentby recipients of rights, and the requisite complement of witnesses. Dalso cited the fact that her maternal grandparents had occupied the landat Tapuru for their entire married life, as evidence of a rightful claimto primary rights. The judges found in favour of D and E, and ordered A to refrainfrom making any development on the land unless permission from (andpresumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. involvement of) D and E was sought first. It should also benoted that many people remarked that it was most unusual for disputeswithin clans to be taken to court. Most intra-clan disputes wereresolved out of court. WHAT THE TAPURU LAND CASE EXEMPLIFIES Power of senior men of a matriline to redistribute re��dis��trib��ute?tr.v. re��dis��trib��ut��ed, re��dis��trib��ut��ing, re��dis��trib��utesTo distribute again in a different way; reallocate. land withoutconforming to the constraints of a formal huihui ceremony. At the trial, C attempted to prove that his father, andfather's brother (who might be considered as the core of the'board of directors' for their matriline), had the power tore-allocate primary rights outside the formal constraints of a publichuihui ceremony. This indicates at least the perception of (and perhapsin other contexts the reality of) considerable flexibility around the'essential' customary mechanisms of inheritance and transferof primary rights. Rights can be acquired by wives and sisters as a result of huihuicontributions made by their husbands/brothers. It is clear from the above that primary rights acquired throughhuihui payments made by men can be assumed by, and inherited through,daughters and/or wives. As will be seen below, this is not always thecase, and rights derived from major payments made by men are oftenpresumed not to be shared by or inherited through anyone else. Women can make huihui transactions. It is possible that cases in which women gain land through huihuiare motivated by the woman's (relatively landless land��less?adj.Owning or having no land.landless��ness n.Adj. 1. ) clan attemptingto buy into her husband's land. This may be facilitated where thehusband is from a 'weak lineage', i.e. he has few or nosisters and maternal aunts, and plenty of land. On the other hand, ahusband from a large susu ('strong' lineage) is likely to bepressured to ensure that his children inherit his wife's land. Ifshe has none, then he may have to obtain it by huihui from elsewhere. THE SIRO LAND CASE A case was heard in late 1995 over the land on which the SiroSchool (Fig. 3) was built. The contesting groups were the Kakau andGaubata clans. The hearing was at the level of District Court, and thejudge was an 'Acquisition Officer' in the employ of theCentral Province (which embraced all of the Nggela and Russell Islands).This man came from the island of Malaita, so the hearing was conductedin Solomon Pijin and English. A proposal by the school committee, andthe province, to add a new junior secondary school to the site, was inconflict with the plans of a senior representative from the Gaubata clan(who we will call Z), to develop a tourist resort at the site. Before dealing with the detail raised in the hearing, it isimportant to comment on the way in which the dispute affected themanagement of trochus on Masipuai and Takaio reefs (Fig. 3). Despitelaying claim to only a small area of land around the site of the schoolat Siro, Z announced that he was also claiming both Masipuai and Takaioreefs, each of which had hitherto been harvested by other groups. One ofthose groups was headed by J (Fig. 4), whose rights will be discussedbelow. After Z's claim was made, both reefs were extensivelypoached of trochus and, by the time of the hearing, very few trochusremained on these reefs (Foale and Day 1997). J's paternal grandfather, K, had acquired the land at Tulagiand Galeria, by huihui payment to his maternal aunt, L. Because Masipuaiand Tapana reefs were contiguous with the land at Tulagi and Galeria(Fig. 3), the acquisition naturally included these reefs. At a muchearlier time, L had herself acquired these territories by huihui paymentto the Kakau clan (Fig. 4). J's father's brother, M, was stillliving at Tulagi at the time of the hearing, and his presence there wasenough justification for J to continue harvesting trochus on Masipuai,even though J's own father (N) was long dead. J said that when Mdied he would have to make a new huihui to the Hibo clan if he wanted tomaintain his primary rights to trochus at Masipuni. But he would have tofirst make an application to do so, and would probably have to defer toM's son, O, if O wanted to make a huihui for the property himself.Interestingly, J also harvested trochus at Tapana reef which was claimedby P who lived at Galeria (P worked for many years in the government andhad recently retired to Galeria) but did not dive and was happy for J toharvest there. These patrilateral bonds clearly transcend any strictmatrilineal reckoning, which would give J no primary rights at all overresources on Masipuai and Tapana (see below). Trochus on Takaio reef hadhitherto been harvested by members of the Hogokama clan, but this factis extraneous to the issues of this case. Shortly after the hearing, M died, leaving his son, O, and O'sfamily (his wife and children), residing at Tulagi. When interviewed (inDecember, 1995) as to what would happen to O and family, the seniorliving matrilineal descendant of L, who lived at nearby Boroni, saidthat the land at Tulagi, and Masipuai reef, now defaulted to his clan(Hibo). He said he had made an 'agreement' with O, allowinghim to stay on at Tulagi, but not allowing him to proceed with anydevelopment there. Whether or not O would have stayed on at Tulagiwithout this agreement is open to conjecture, but because fieldworkfinished shortly thereafter, no further data relevant to this case wereobtained. The District Court hearing of the Siro land dispute illustratedaspects of tenure other than those related to descent reckoning andcustomary property transfer. The Acquisition Officer found in favour ofthe Gaubata clan in the end, thereby removing any legal obstruction to Zproceeding with his proposed resort development. No judgement was passedregarding Z's claim to both Takaio and Masipuai reefs however, andtheir present status is not known. Unlike the Tapuru case, the Sirodispute was over the claim of two clans to primary rights over theproperty, stemming from the first settlement of ancestral clan memberson that land. The chief representatives from each clan presented fourcategories of evidence in their testimonies: 1) the history ofsettlement and names of original settlers of the land, and how thesewere related, matrilinealy, to themselves and their kin; 2) currentactivities, subsistence and otherwise, of members of each clan on theproperty; 3) the clan affiliation of the people who original lynegotiated establishment of the school in the early 1960s; and 4)knowledge of sacred sites and boundaries in and around the property. Inhis judgement and report, the Acquisition Officer paid relatively littleattention to the historical and genealogical evidence, and instead basedhis decision mostly on evidence presented in categories 3 and(especially) 4. He was particularly impressed with the relativeconfidence with which the Gaubata representatives located, named andexplained sacred and 'custom' sites during a tour of thedisputed area. This is discussed below. WHAT THE SIRO LAND CASE EXEMPLIFIES Patrilateral bonds may override matrilineal descent reckoning insome cases. Technically, once J's grandfather (K) died, both J and hisuncle, M, should have relinquished any primary rights over thatterritory, including the right to tabu and harvest trochus. But theywere by then well-established on the property, and their use of the landwould not have changed (and therefore nor would their rights,effectively), since they were able to make an 'agreement' withthe matrilineal heirs of L to stay there. Another 'agreement'was made with M's son, when M died in late '95, to the sameeffect, though the Hibo people specified that they forbade anydevelopment on the land, implying that only use rights were granted. Itis unlikely, however, that any minor violations of this agreement wouldprovoke a reaction from the Hibo clan, unless of course a large amountof money was involved. If primary rights over Masipuai reef did in factdefault back to the Hibo clansfolk residing at Boroni, they should have(and easily could have) made the trochus tabus themselves there, butthey never did. 'Adventurous' claims to 'adjacent' reefs may bepossible in areas where the geography of land and reefs is complex. Prior to the dispute, Masipuai and Takaio reefs had been harvestedby people from different clans, by virtue of their rights over the landat Tulagi and to the south of the school. Despite this, Z sought toinclude those reefs as part of his land, by claiming that they were inline-of-sight of the land at the school (see Fig. 3). Other cases wererecorded at West Nggela at the time of fieldwork, where competing claimsexisted over nearshore near��shore?n.The region of land extending from the backshore to the beginning of the offshore zone.near and offshore reefs, due to the relative distancefrom shore of the reefs (or small islands), or complexities in thegeography of the area. A number of criteria other than unilineal descent reckoning werepresented to, and considered by, the judge in making his decision. These included: a) knowledge of boundaries and tabu sites, b)contemporary usage of the land, c) knowledge of history of settlement,and d) the people involved in the initial agreement. The fact that the genealogies of the competing clans were not themainstay of either argument is in any case the main point to be madehere. That the judge came from a different island, where descentreckoning may be different (e.g. patrilineal patrilineal/pa��tri��lin��e��al/ (pat?ri-lin��e-il) descended through the male line. pat��ri��lin��e��aladj.Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the paternal line. , ambilineal), and wherelocal economic and political influences may emphasise different criteriafor claims over rights to property (Scheffler 1971), must also beconsidered. Given the high frequency of intermarriage in��ter��mar��ry?intr.v. in��ter��mar��ried, in��ter��mar��ry��ing, in��ter��mar��ries1. To marry a member of another group.2. To be bound together by the marriages of members.3. between the twoclans involved in this dispute, it is plausible that claims to primaryrights on either side may be over land to which each had only secondaryrights (i.e. through marriage) originally. Over several generations,secondary rights may have been upgraded to primary rights, in variousways (not necessarily including huihui, since this was never mentionedat the hearing). VATU TUGURU An example of a case where a huihui payment, made by a man, wasdeemed to not be heritable through his wife, was found in aninvestigation of primary rights over another property, Vatu Tuguru (Fig.1) (Foale 1997, in press). This ruling was made by senior male membersof a matriline (ml) that was competing for access to trochus on thereefs at Vatu Tuguru with another matriline (m2) that claimed primaryrights through matrilineal inheritance from the wife of a man (X) whopurchased the property, by huihui, some three generations beforepresent. Matriline ml claimed rights through the sister of X'sthree maternal uncles, who they claimed had also made significantcontributions to the same huihui payment. That sister apparently nevermade any contribution to the payment herself. The matter was never takento court, as nothing more was at stake than the trochus harvest. DISCUSSION The case studies clearly show that 'rules' regarding theinheritance and transfer of primary rights to resources are not alwaysin agreement with the 'essentialist' view presented earlier.This lack of agreement seems to arise in an opportunistic and sometimesvolatile fashion, usually in response to an increase in the perceivedvalue of a property to which two or more parties may have a claim (seealso Dalzell 1994; Turner 1994; Akimichi 1995). The arguments put forward by the various parties involved in thedisputes discussed above were diverse and, to be understood, requirediscussion of a number of contemporary and historical aspects of Nggelasociety. The motivation for, and justification of, some of thosearguments appear to have their origins in different power structures (or'universes of discourse' - Bourdieu 1977: 110) that coexist,and to some degree overlap, within Nggela society (see also White 1991:205). Otto (1992) describes three separate 'spheres ofauthority', or 'institutional domains', in his analysisof power conflicts on Baluan Is., Manus Province Coordinates: Manus Province is the smallest province in Papua New Guinea with a land area of 2,100 km2, but with more than 220,000 km2 of water. . These are'traditional' (kastam in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) A bitmapped graphics file format endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is expected to eventually replace the GIF format, because there are lingering legal problems with GIFs. Pijin), 'church' (lotu)and 'government and Western style development' (gavman). Hisanalysis showed that people who might be excluded from positions ofleadership and authority in the realm of kastam were able to achievepower and status within each of the latter two institutional domains(see also Hume 1986; Errington and Gewertz 1993). The o verlap of thelotu and gavman domains with kastam led to occasional clashes withkastam leaders and also with each other. The outcomes of such powerstruggles at Baluan, and elsewhere, depend on the relative strength orinfluence of the different institutional domains, which are contingentupon Adj. 1. contingent upon - determined by conditions or circumstances that follow; "arms sales contingent on the approval of congress"contingent on, dependant on, dependant upon, dependent on, dependent upon, depending on, contingent local historical and cultural factors (see also Aswani 1997). At Nggela a similar set of spheres of authority existed. Men whohad achieved a high level of education or had worked for the government,or a large foreign company (this would come under the ambit ofOtto's gavman category) [8] and men with high positions in theAnglican church (e.g. catechist cat��e��chist?n.A person who catechizes, especially one who instructs catechumens in preparation for admission into a Christian church.[French catechiste, from Old French, from Late Latin , priest), appeared to havedisproportionate influence in matters relating to property rights. Thisauthority was particularly appealed to when they concerned commercialenterprise, or receipt of royalties. However, their influence alsoembraced important traditional cultural functions such as ceremonies.These individuals were in many respects analogous to the classicMelanesian 'Big Man' (Sahlins 1963; Godelier and Strathern1991) and indeed were regularly referred to as such (mane manethe region of long coarse hair at the dorsal border of the neck and terminating at the poll in the forelock. Present in the horse and other Equidae. Similar gatherings of coarse hairs are present in the giraffe, gnu, various antelope, cheetah and lion. Called also juba. sule). Thespheres of kastom and gavman are thus overlapping and conjoined conjoined/con��joined/ (kon-joind��) joined together; united. conjoinedjoined together.conjoined monsterstwo deformed fetuses fused together. in theperson of the Big Man. But these 'modem' big men in fact mightnot rest cases on kastom at all and are often opportunistic and highlyselective in their appe al to elements of customary tenure whenasserting claims through formal courts. The capacity for powerful men toimprovise im��pro��vise?v. im��pro��vised, im��pro��vis��ing, im��pro��vis��esv.tr.1. To invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation.2. , to exploit ambiguities and to introduce new'customs' into systems of land tenure has long been a factorin Melanesian land transfers. In both Papua New Guinea and the Solomons,land disputes over land alienated by missions and planters reveal thatthe agreements were sometimes made with 'owners' who had onlytenuous claims by custom - but were able to insert their interests inthe space between colonial ignorance of customary tenure and the villageleaders' inability to communicate their interests. In the Tapurn case, A's attempts to exercise exclusive primaryrights over Tapuru, using lines of reasoning which contravened theideals of both unihineal descent reckoning and the customary landtransfer ceremony (huihui), might not have been made were it not for hispowerful and influential position in the community. His standing in thecommunity can be attributed to his relatively high level of formaleducation and the fact that he held a professional position with thegovernment in Honiara. He was used to dealing with foreigners,particularly through his work, and perhaps felt he was the bestqualified to negotiate a successful development with a foreignbusinessman. [9] Additionally, D and E both lived relatively far awayfrom Tapuru, further reducing the incentive for A to contact them aboutthe proposal. At Nggela, many senior women have had little contact withthe outside world, and often speak no language other than Nggela, whichvery much limits both their access to information and their sphere ofinfluence. A on the other hand spoke Nggela, Solomon Pijin and Englishfluently, and this enhanced his skills as an orator ORATOR, practice. A good man, skillful in speaking well, and who employs a perfect eloquence to defend causes either public or private. Dupin, Profession d'Avocat, tom. 1, p. 19.. 2. . Several other individuals with similar external qualifications(including high positions in the church), at some time, appeared to havebeen able to successfully break or bend the 'essential' rulesand principles of descent reckoning and property transfer in order toacquire primary rights to land and reef. The claims of these individualsdid not always go uncontested, but the challenges were rarelysuccessful. The examples presented here indicate, however, that there arefactors other than personal power complicating the picture at WestNggela. [10] In the Siro case study, J's claim over trochus rightsat Masipuai and Tapana reefs (i.e. prior to the initiation of theGaubata claim over these reefs) was based on patrilateral bonds and isunlikely to have been underpinned by his standing in the Church or anygavman-related source of authority. In fact J's claim may haveinitially prevailed simply due to the absence of any opposing claim.[11] It should also be noted that in the Tapuru case, C frequentlyclaimed to have partial primary rights over his wife's land (infact he said he would claim half of the proceeds from any developmentthat was made on her land), by virtue of the fact that she was hispatrilateral second cousin (his father and hers were matrilateral firstcousins, see Fig. 2), even though his matrilateral clan affiliation wasdifferent. Clearly patrilateral ties are important (and probably alwayshav e been) and underpin a variety of claims. The relative strength ofsuch underpinnings is likely to vary considerably depending onindividual contexts and circumstances. In terms of descent reckoning alone, the matrilineal system of theNggela people does not present nearly the amount of flexibility affordedby the cognatic systems of Western Solomons (Scheffler 1965: 53; Hviding1993, 1996: 132; Aswani 1997). In these latter systems, membership of anumber of corporate groups, and thus access to the estates controlled bythose groups, can be claimed (again, facilitating considerableopportunism OpportunismArabella, Ladysquire’s wife matchmakes with money in mind. [Br. Lit.: Doctor Thorne]Ashkenazi, Simchashrewdly and unscrupulously becomes merchant prince. [Yiddish Lit. ) [12] by tracing descent via any combination of male andfemale links to any of a multitude of ancestors. [13] At Nggela on theother hand, where patrilateral-based use rights continue unopposed for asufficiently long time (e.g. three or more generations), the potentialfor transforming these to primary rights clearly increases. As was seenin the Siro case above, contemporary usage of land [14] is an importantfactor in the success of a claim in court. As time goes by details ofthe origins of claims are gradually forgotten or confused (Rodman 1987:42), and in such cases political power and oratory oratory,the art of swaying an audience by eloquent speech. In ancient Greece and Rome oratory was included under the term rhetoric, which meant the art of composing as well as delivering a speech. skill can facilitatethe reinforcement of such rights within the local legal framework. Confusion frequently originates from the actual details of transferprocesses, such as huihui, or bequeathals of various kinds. [15] Theambiguity regarding the heritability heritability/her��i��ta��bil��i��ty/ (her?i-tah-bil��i-te) the quality of being heritable; a measure of the extent to which a phenotype is influenced by the genotype. her��i��ta��bil��i��tyn.1. by women, of huihui contributionsmade by their husbands or siblings, as shown in the Tapuru and VatuTuguru (Foale 1997, in press) examples, raises interesting matters. Inmany parts of Melanesia, relations between the sexes have beencharacterised as structurally opposed or antagonistic (Meggitt 1964;Ross 1973: 118; Josephides 1985). Where descent reckoning and landrights are matrilineal, as in the Massim and among the Tolai of PapuaNew Guinea (Fingleton 1985; Macintyre 1989) conflict often arises asmatrilineal groups attempt to reclaim rights gained by affines throughgift exchanges which the latter perceive as establishing permanentrights. This would at least partially explain the seemingly unlikelycases where a man's huihui contribution is supposedly not shared byhis wife and therefore not heritable by his children (e.g. Vatu Tuguru).On the other hand, F's daughters clearly shared in his contributiontowards Tapuru (Fig. 2). Obviously each transaction occurs in a uniquecontext and serves a particular purpose, and the details may well bedisagreed on, or subject to distortions by competing parties,particularly after several generations have elapsed. In terms ofconventional praxis, the social status and the political voice that menhave enables them to represent their interests in ways that exclude orinclude women according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. circumstance. Josephides' argumentsabout women's lack of control over transactions pertains here, forwomen's contributions as daughters or wives are open tointerpretation by the male transactor who can choose to incorporate themeither as expressing an interest in the exchange, or simply as'assistance' for his (exclusive) ends. Given the fact thatwomen produce food and rear pigs in a domestic unit, the use of theseproducts by men is always ambiguous, even when women's interestsappear to be clear i nitially -- for the disputes often arise aftertheir deaths. The underlying 'principles' that facilitate tenure claimsthat exclude women do not reside in the customary tenure system but arepart of the overarching 'system' of gendered power. As men arethe representatives of women's interests in courts, the claims ofwomen who made contributions to a huihui are contingent upon theinterests of the man involved and his political status vis-a-vis othermen involved. If he and his lineage want to transfer rights, then thewife's or daughters' interests will be suppressed. If, asoften happens, he wants to secure them for a son, then the women'scontributions will be represented as crucial. In some respects this is areflection of the classic 'matrilineal' division ofhusbands' loyalties. In the contemporary context it is alsoconstituent of the erosion of women's 'traditional'rights in a post-colonial State legal system that cannot encompass thevariety of tenure systems that persist in Verb 1. persist in - do something repeatedly and showing no intention to stop; "We continued our research into the cause of the illness"; "The landlord persists in asking us to move"continue the country. On Nggela it is acknowledged that a man will have conflictingallegiances between his clan and his affines. In cases where sufficientpressure is brought to bear from his matrilateral kin, then his ownchildren may be excluded from inheriting his share in a property. In theVatu Tuguru case, X contributed towards an acquisition along withseveral of his mother's brothers. His mother's sister'smatrilineal descendants ended up challenging the claim of hiswife's matrilineal descendants. The wife's clan in somecircumstances might on the other hand, use another kind of leverage.Given the strong preference for endogamous marriage choices at Nggela,it may be that some exogamous ex��og��a��my?n.1. The custom of marrying outside the tribe, family, clan, or other social unit.2. Biology The fusion of two gametes that are not closely related. marriages are part of an aggressiveattempt by the woman's clan to obtain land from her husband'sclan, by demanding primary rights to some property in lieu of cash orother commodities as bride price bride price:see marriage. . Large public prestations of pigs orfood at funeral ceremonies are another means of imposing obligations onanother lineage, whereupon a ccess to some of their property issolicited, or simply taken, as repayment. This style of propertyappropriation easily accounts for the 'rule' where, when alineage 'runs out of daughters', any property previouslyacquired by huihui ideally 'defaults' to the relinquishingclan. Ultimately, disagreements over rights of access and exclusion areunlikely to surface in a formal dispute unless a significant economicopportunity is at stake. At Nggela at the time of fieldwork, trochusharvests were not of sufficient economic importance to trigger disputes,whereas tourist developments were. However the outcome of any conflictover access rights, whether formalised Adj. 1. formalised - concerned with or characterized by rigorous adherence to recognized forms (especially in religion or art); "highly formalized plays like `Waiting for Godot'"formalistic, formalized in a court hearing (Siro) or not(Vatu Tuguru), is a breakdown in the tabu system of management, withresultant overharvesting of trochus stocks. The relative economicimportance of trochus fisheries is greater on Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the 5th largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km2, measuring around 100kms x 30kms. in PNG, whereseveral reports indicate that the commercial value of trochus alone wassufficient to aggravate disputes where disagreements over tenure existed(Carrier, 1981; Johannes 1982; Akimichi 1995). Whatever the development(tourism or fisheries), it is the commodification of resources thatcomes with new forms of economic exploitation that exerts pressure totreat tenure systems as fixed and enduri ng, when in fact they areclearly adapted to the political volatility and fluctuations in lineagesize and strength which have historically driven changes in controlover, and access to, resources. The gender dynamic which excludes women from formal, publicpresentation of their interests in many Melanesian societies cannot beregarded as intrinsic to a tenure system. Yet clearly the two Nggelacases illustrate the way that the roles of women in exchanges and theirinterests (whether broadly or narrowly defined) are often manipulatedand interpreted by men to further distinct, sometimes opposing ends.Much of the 'flexibility' of interpretation is located in theambiguities surrounding the rights of, or through, women and thetendency of men to appeal to these opportunistically rather thansystematically. The observed anomalies are in effect creative ploys to'win the case'. While such improvisations have always beenpart of the Big Man's tactics, in the contemporary context whereresources can be commoditized and destroyed, they can underminecustomary claims entirely. The interests of modern Big Men, who are notsimply working as brokers but are often trying to amass personal wealthin dollars, rarely coincide with those of the women who remain in thevillages tending gardens and pigs. Pressure for formal legal recognitionof customary tenure by local leaders cannot be taken necessarily asevidence of their communitarian com��mu��ni��tar��i��an?n.A member or supporter of a small cooperative or a collectivist community.com��mu view of wealth distribution. The pressure for fixity of tenure is further reinforced by thetechnological and infrastructural trappings of development, such asresort accommodation (in the case of tourism), freezers and marinas (inthe case of fisheries). Because the money for these things usually comesfrom outside, the investors demand a certainty that is in many waysinimical inimical,n a homeopathic remedy whose actions hinder, but do not counteract those of another. Also calledincompatible. to the principles that traditionally defined and determined thetraditional tenure arrangements. Given the historical dynamism and general flexibility of tenuresystems and types of rights at Nggela, it is inevitable that mountingpressure from new developments and burgeoning human populations willresult in more conflicts over rights to resources, including reefresources, in the future. In recognition of these problems, the Nggelapeople have recently made attempts to set up a 'House ofChiefs' that would be charged with, among other things, resolvingproperty disputes. These attempts have not as yet succeeded. Similarattempts, in the late 1970s, to establish a 'Council ofChiefs' on Ambae Island in Vanuatu, which was charged withcodification and enforcement of customary law, also met with failure(Tonkinson 1982). This failure can be attributed in part to thevolatility of big-man systems where the status of 'chief' hasto be regularly reaffirmed, and continuity rests on personal attributesand ambitions rather than categorical rank. Complete or partial codification of marine tenure institutions hasbeen advocated by Graham (1994) and Aswani (1997). We are not convincedof the usefulness of this measure in the Nggela situation however. Onebasic problem at Nggela is that the essential system is described interms of unilineal clan ownership whereas many of the transfers occur inthe context of marital relationships that, in certain ceremonialexchanges, are construed more narrowly so that individuals can lay claimto use rights or transferred rights. It has been argued thatcodification need not (Graham 1994), and indeed should not (Ruddle etal. 1992; Ruddle 1993), obviate the flexibility of customary marinetenure systems. But it is this very flexibility that has led to thekinds of disputes described here (see also Aswani 1997). The problems of customary tenure in Melanesia have implications notsimply for the ways that they are exploited to alienate land fromrightful owners. Conservation and sustainability of terrestrial andmarine resources are increasingly difficult when 'localinterests' in preventing over-exploitation cannot be presumed. Forthe educated local 'businessman' the protection of fishinggrounds that are the primary source of a small cash income for villagerswith no other access to employment is not necessarily in his interest. It would seem that more practical avenues to counter problems ofoverfishing should be sought. Some of these, such as the enforcement ofminimum size-limits and establishment of marine reserves, have beendiscussed elsewhere (Foale in press; Foale and Day 1997). Educating theagents of development about the nature of customary tenure systems wouldclearly go a long way towards ameliorating problems, and attempting tomake developments more flexible, rather than local tenure systems lessso, may be a more useful approach. NOTES (1.) 87% of the land in the Solomon Islands is held under customaryownership (Boer 1992). (2.) In the Solomon Islands, as in most other parts of Melanesia,customary rules of property ownership and transfer are recognised by,and enshrined within, State law (Boer 1992; Ruddle 1993). (3.) Tribe is the Solomon Pijin word used by Nggela people forclan, and is regularly used in discussions about reef tenure. Itprobably originated from colonial legal jargon. (4.) Many Nggela people are very familiar with the lucrativeaspects of resorts, through their experiences of a resort at AnuhaIsland, just to the north of Nggela Sule, during the late '70 andearly '80s, before it was destroyed by a fire. (5.) Recreational diving Recreational diving or sport diving is a type of diving that uses SCUBA equipment for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment. HistoryRecreational scuba diving grew out of related activities such as snorkelling and underwater hunting. , from 'live-aboard' divingvessels operating out of Honiara, is already a source of income, in theform of royalties, for some reef owners at West Nggela. (6.) The second land dispute was held over two sessions, and onlyone of these was attended by the author. (7.) Trochus tabus, which took the form of a conditional spell,were usually installed, by a member of the Anglican clergy (on behalf ofthe rights-holder), for 3-12 months, and were advertised by a decoratedstick erected on the reef crest. (8.) Indeed, anyone with a substantial income could be included inthe gavman category. At the time of fieldwork this was dominated byemployees of government and multinational companies. (9.) Given the success of resource piracy by foreign companies inrecent times in the Solomon Islands, people with the ability to dealeffectively with foreigners are normally held in high regard by theircommunity, since the community on the whole has much to lose, andgenerally wishes to approach such negotiations with care and tact. Manytransactions are in fact sabotaged by individual corruption, but this isbeyond the scope of this discussion. (10.) According to Scheffler (1971), 'big-men' have lesspower to override the normal system of descent reckoning indensely-populated, coastal, yam-growing communities (such as those atWest Nggela) than they do in the more scattered, taro-growing hamlets inthe mountainous areas of Guadalcanal. (11.) The outcome of the Tapuru case indicates that any challengefrom a matrilineal heir of L (Fig. 4), had it been made, would have agood chance of being upheld. (12.) Hviding (1996: 151) and Aswani (1997) report that Marovo andRoviana people (respectively) tend to interpret their kindredcomposition in ways that allow them access to as many different estatesas possible. See also Sheffler (1971) and Ross (1973: 114). (13.) Of course these systems are considerably more complex thanthis, and the strength of claims is also affected by residence patternsand systems of 'cumulative filiation' which vary in stylebetween regions (Scheffler 1964; Hviding 1996). (14.) This is often emphasised by overt industriousness Industriousnessantworks hard to prepare for winter while grasshopper plays. [Gk. Lit.: Aesop’s Fables, “The Ant and the Grasshopper”]beaverperpetually and eagerly active. ,particularly by clearing, planting and maintaining the land, even wheresuch development is neither necessary or profitable (see also Aswani1997). (15.) 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