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Gendered access to customary land in East Timor

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Abstract

Land tenure rights reflect the deeper structures of society, particularly gender distinctions in relation to land. Considering the structural differences between patrilineal and matrilineal customary tenure systems in East Timor are understudied, this paper explores men and women’s experiences in accessing land under such arrangements. The comparative analysis of two patrilineal with one matrilineal land tenure systems in Ainaro and Manufahi districts suggests a significant degree of flexibility within both systems with respect to the norms of gendered inheritance. Therefore, the binary constructs of ‘patrilineal’ and ‘matrilineal’ societies are limiting. Both men and women in these communities may acquire land rights under different circumstances, mainly through negotiations with their parents or hamlet chief. Daughters in the patrilineal communities could inherit family land upon their parents’ death and sons in the matrilineal community could gain land by cultivating and maintaining unclaimed customary land. Empirical evidence show that inheritance principally determines usufruct rights to land, but marriage exchange practices complicates a deeper understanding of traditional East Timorese land rights.

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Notes

  1. Selihasan represents a unique case in that its members were internally displaced under Indonesian military rule from the neighbouring Alas district, and were integrated into Betano suco (village) on the south-coast. Anthropologists regard Alas to be the centre of East Timorese matriarchal societies.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted as part of an honours thesis at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and was funded by an internal competitive grant provided by the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science at UWA to Myra Keep, Bob Gilkes and Kimberly Van Niel. Further support was provided through a UWA Research Grant held by Associate Professors Myra Keep and David Haig. Sincere gratitude is extended to the criticisms and suggestions of Eujay McCartain and Ma Yamin. Flights from Darwin to Dili were kindly provided by ConocoPhilips. Ethical clearance was obtained through the UWA (reference RA/4/1/0965).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Building No. 9, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia

    Pyone Myat Thu

  2. Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L3G1

    Steffanie Scott

  3. School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth, 6009, Australia

    Kimberly P. Van Niel

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Thu, P.M., Scott, S. & Van Niel, K.P. Gendered access to customary land in East Timor. GeoJournal 69, 239–255 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-007-9094-8

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