dc.description.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. | en |