communal land
Resolving Issues in Manitoba
About 140 miles southwest of Winnipeg on the border of Manitoba with North Dakota, the International Peace Garden beckons travelers to stop and contemplate the meaning of peace. The ambience of formal flower beds, fountains, some towers, and the international border between the two nations running straight through the middle of the garden effectively symbolize […]
Visit to a Saskatchewan Hutterite Colony
A reporter from the CTV television network visited some Hutterites outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, recently and observed how devoted they are to their culture, families, and language. Julie Clark, the reporter, toured the Sunny Dale Colony, located in the Canadian prairie 40 miles west northwest of the city, to gain some perspectives on Hutterite society. […]
Uses and Customs in Oaxaca [online magazine article review]
Self-governance, community service, and communal lands are among the traditions cherished by the Zapotec that help them maintain their autonomy, interpersonal harmony and effective approaches to justice. This website reviewed a journal article about the Zapotec social and political system, called usos y costumbres, in 2005, but it is helpful to have a current, popularly-written […]
Ju/’hoansi Community Forest Threatened
The government of Namibia established the Nyae Nyae Community Forest for the Ju/’hoansi earlier this year and the land is already threatened by illegal grazing. According to a report last week in the daily newspaper The Namibian, Xoallan /Ai!Ae, the chair of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy, went to the national capital, Windhoek, to plead with […]
Semai Communal Lands Threatened
Malaysia’s Orang Asli believe that life must be based on nature in order to properly satisfy human needs, according to Anthony Williams-Hunt, a Semai lawyer. An article last week argued that, for the Orang Asli, the forest is their workplace, their shopping mall, their cultural provider, their playground, the source of their utilities, and the […]
Ju/’hoansi in the News
A series of news articles over the past month about the Ju/’hoansi of Namibia provide some interesting new information about the desert dwellers. Richard Lee, an anthropologist who has studied the Ju/’hoansi extensively, wrote an article picked up by the news aggregating serve allafrica.com about an initiative to foster the bio-cultural rights of the Ju/’hoansi […]
Ju/’hoansi Still Losing Lands in Namibia
Thousands of San in Namibia, including many members of the Ju/’hoansi society, continue to survive in conditions that are as bad, or worse, than when the country gained its independence in 1990. According to Clement Daniels, chair of the Namibian Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), “it is a disgrace that 17 years after independence, one group […]
