Abstract
IN ANY society legal rules concerned with land tenure are most important, after laws of inheritance, with respect to social structure. Despite this importance, and in spite of several outstanding accounts of land tenure in particular societies, contributions to a legal theory of land tenure have not been entirely satisfactory. It seems to me, for present at least, and contrary to opinion of Herskovits (1960:350), that problem lies more in lack of a precise, formal, and cross-culturally applicable comparative method than it does in any absence of philosophical considerations. In this article this methodological problem is investigated through an application of various methods of formal analysis drawn from fields of ethnoscience and linguistics, and there is proposed a type of analysis, with cross-cultural applicability and comparative significance, that is expected to permit an exact inquiry. To demonstrate use and merits of various methods I shall apply them to Kapauku Papuan laws of land tenure. This West New Guinea Highlands society was selected because I possess a firsthand and reasonably full account of their law, and because laws of land tenure of these Papuans are sufficiently complex and conceptualized to serve purpose. It must be emphasized that this analysis pertains only to Kapauku ideal land tenure, abstract rules which are mental property of most adult males. A few general remarks concerning these rules follow. First, actual behavior of Kapauku is generally consonant with their ideal abstract rules, and those decisions over disputed cases which I have collected show a remarkable conformity to ideal. Second, Kapauku rules of land tenure contradict Herskovits' generalization about Melanesian communities that they admit ownership of produce rather than of garden where it is grown (1960:358). Kapauku rules clearly refer to land which is owned individually and may be sold, leased for shell money, or loaned by owner. Consequently, contrary to Herskovits (1949:283), title to Kapauku land does not rest on its use. Third, since Kapauku legal rules against trespass apply not only to gardens but also to fallow land (grass land and secondary forest) as well as to partly exploited virgin forest, brooks, and small lakes, they contradict Herskovits' generalization that the recognition of trespass as an offense thereupon merely becomes evidence of a recognition of right to own crops (1960:358). Fourth, Kapauku rules of land tenure cannot be classified easily as belong-
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