Land Acquisitions, Common Pool Resources and Common Property Institutions: Theoretical Reflections from an Anthropological Perspective

Recent discussions in social anthropology on land acquisitions highlight that we need to go further back in history in order to analyse impacts on local livelihoods. The debate over the commons in economic and ecological anthropology helps to understand some of today’s dynamics by looking at pre-colonial common property institutions and the way they were transformed by western colonialisation. Pauline Peters indicates for Africa that traditional land tenure was misinterpreted as customary tenure without full property, which still poses a legacy. Studies in African Floodplains additionally indicate that before colonial rule local groups developed common property institutions including ownership, use and governance (membership, monitoring and sanctioning) as a complex interrelated web of access to land and related resources. These institutions were based on local power relations and crafted in order to buffer risk in the natural and political environment. Understanding their transformations is key to today’s land debate.