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Land in Kwara'ae and development in Solomon Islands
Author(s) -
Burt Ben
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1994.tb02475.x
Subject(s) - inheritance (genetic algorithm) , flexibility (engineering) , government (linguistics) , value (mathematics) , geography , natural resource , land tenure , environmental planning , political science , natural resource economics , economics , archaeology , law , biochemistry , chemistry , linguistics , philosophy , machine learning , computer science , gene , agriculture , management
This paper documents land tenure and the effects of economic development in Kwara'ae on the island of Malaita. It uses local histories to confirm the essential flexibility of a system of cognatic inheritance, based on social and economic values which contradict the more exclusive unilineal emphasis preferred and promoted by government land and development policy in Solomon Islands. In considering the resulting problem of land disputes, the paper questions the value of reforms which undermine the tradition of communal control of natural resources.