THE JURAL PERSONALITY OF THE VILLAGE IN THE SOCIETIES OF BORNEO. George N. Appell, Ph.D. Working Paper No. 4

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1 THE JURAL PERSONALITY OF THE VILLAGE IN THE SOCIETIES OF BORNEO George N. Appell, Ph.D. Working Paper No SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION AND ADAPTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE P. O. Box A Phillips, ME 04966

2 THE JURAL PERSONALITY OF THE VILLAGE Introduction The jural personality of the village in the societies of Borneo varies considerably. By jural personality I refer to the sum total of rights and duties that a village holds vis-á-vis other jural entities. Nevertheless, to my knowledge there is no instance in which a village does not have some kind of corporate rights over its territory, although in the minimal case they are very undeveloped. Let me list the various rights and duties that villages hold with regard to their territory and the members of their village, starting from the least well-developed jural personality to the most well developed. These aspects of the jural personality in essence form a series of questions that can be put to informants to determine the nature of the jural personality of the village. Rights and Duties of the Village 1. All members of the village may cut their swiddens and plant fruit trees within the boundaries of the village. 2. all village members have rights to use the cemeteries in the village. 3. The village territory may be farmed by a non-resident individual, but such an intruder into the village space is denied access to the village moot. In other words, he is unprotected if his swidden is destroyed, taken over by a village member, etc. 4. The headman, as representative of the village, can deny the right to residence in the village on application from a non-resident individual. In instances where the village has a more developed jural personality the headman and village moot may deny residence to a member of the village if he has perpetrated a crime. 5. Game and fruit may be taken by an outsider if it is only for his personal use on traveling through the village territory. Game and fruit may not then be sold for profit.

3 Game and fruit taken by an outsider must be shared with the members of the closest hamlet of the village in which the acquisition occurred. 7. The village has a definite boundary around its territory which is defended from intrusion by outsiders attempting to make a swidden in the village territory; or access to the village territory is temporarily forbidden following certain ceremonies to increase the fertility of the village. In the case of intruding outsiders making a swidden, the village headman may take the action of burning the swidden prior to its having dried sufficiently to make a good burn, or the village headman may take action against the intruders and sue for compensation through the headman of the village of the outsiders. 8. No outsider may cut wood in the village territory for making a house or longhouse apartment in the outsider's own territory. This can result in a diminution of the ritual state of the village which was intruded upon, or in other words, a loss of goodwill between the village and the spirit world. 9. Members of the village in cutting their swiddens only have rights to use a piece of land until they have removed all their crops. This right to use the land may exist for one to three or four years if manioc is planted. Then, the land reverts to the village reserve, or what the Dutch adatricht scholars refer to as the "area of disposal." This form of tenure I have termed "circulating usufruct." 10. The next step in the evolution of land rights involves semi-permanent use rights over an area of the village reserve. This occurs when an individual or a family cuts an area of virgin forest, or an area of secondary forest used by a former village member, and thereby establishes use rights over that area in perpetuity as long as he or the family remains in the village. With regard to these rights there are two types. There is devolvable usufruct in which the rights are created by the individual in cutting the forest and are devolved upon his descendants individually or corporate usufruct which stays permanently with a corporate family unit, as among the Iban.

4 - 3 - The classification of land tenure system I find most useful is as follows, which supersedes previous terminology: 1.0 Circulating usufruct (Rungus) 2.0 Retainable usufruct 2.1 Corporate usufruct (Iban) 2.2 Devolvable usufruct (Land Dayak) 11. Corporate Usufruct. This form of usufruct, as I have indicated, is found among the Iban in which usufruct rights created by an individual reside with the corporate family, the bilek, of which he is a member. These rights exist in perpetuity or until the bilek no longer exists or moves to another village. 12. Recapture by the village. Do retainable usufruct rights return to the village on the death of the holder or if the holder, whether a person or corporate unit, leaves the village? In certain cases, as among the Iban and the Kantu' Dayak, if the bilek family leaves the village, its usufruct returns to the village reserve to be redistributed. 13. Saleable Usufruct. Can the usufruct be sold to other members of the community, if the person wants to leave the community. 14. Can the usufruct be held by a jural entity, either person or corporate group, on leaving the village. That is,rights over the land are still held by non-resident members after they leave, an no one in the village may use their usufruct without its prior approval. 13. Saleable Usufruct. Can the usufruct be sold to other members of the community, if the person wants to leave the community. 14. Can the usufruct be held by a jural entity, either person or corporate group, on leaving the village. That is, rights over the land are still held by non-resident members after they leave, and no one in the village may use their usufruct without its prior approval.

5 Permanent rights are created over an area of the village reserve through the construction of wet rice, dams and bunds. 16. This land may not be sold to outsiders without permission of a village head. 17. This land may be sold to outsiders and cultivated by people who are not members of the village. Development Cycle of the Jural Personality of the Village From the above you can see that where land is not scarce, village rights are stronger than individual rights but the jural personality is not well developed. As land rights become scarcer, the jural personality of the village becomes more developed. Then there is a point in which individually held rights over land, or rights held corporately by a domestic family in the village, begin to become more paramount, and the jural personality of the village with regard to rights over its reserve begins to erode. However, its rights over the action of village members may continue, as for example an individual who commits a crime may no longer reside in the village. These issues are important in terms of economic development. Do we want villages to have a certain cohesion? Do we want the community to have a certain level of integration with a minimum of anomie? If that is the case, then we want to see that the village retains what I have called residual rights over its land. That is, outsiders may not cultivate in the village area without the approval of the village members. This is important for development planning, as at present land may be sold to urban residents by individuals living in the village. As a result, the village area of disposal may end up in the control of non-resident, urban plantations. And this will result in the creation of a class of landless peasants. G N. Appell, Ph.D. January 24, 1990