Land tenure : its sociological implications with specific reference to the swahili-speaking peoples of the east African coast with annotated bibliography of the area

Abstract

In this thesis I examine some questions raised by a . sociological study of land tenure. In the introduction I define some of the terms which will be used. The first section consists of an examination of some of the work done by anthropologists in this field. In the first chapter I have looked at the work of Malinowski, who was the first to insist on studying rights and the relation of land tenure to the rest of the social struct1~e, and some of his pupils - Mair, Wilson.,Firth, Richards, and others, who used many of his ideas, and developed some of them further, but did not add anything new .The second chapter is concerned with the work of Schapera and Gluckmano Their respective approaches are contrasted, Schapera's descriptive method, and Gluckman's theoretical approach. The third and fourth chapters are concerned with the work of Bohannan and Leach, who use very different methods in studying land tenureo Bohannan regards it as determined by the kinship system, while Leach says that the kinship system is largely a 'rationalisation' of the system of land tenure. The relationship between land and kinship is discussed, with some reference to the recent controversy on the nature of kinship. A brief summary indicates the main lines of approach to the Swahili material, which forms the second section of the thesis.