Negotiating Land Tenure: Cultural Rootedness in Mele, Vanuatu

Abstract

This thesis examines the interplay of cultural values and socio-economic forces that shape land tenure in the village ofMeIe, Vanuatu. National legislative support for customary land rights empowers villagers to influence land tenure strategies according to their values of land for subsistence, power and identity. Land is fundamental to ni-Vanuatu identity and status, which kastom (traditional) tenure reflects. Demographic change, increasing participation in a cash economy, and land legislation, have the potential to significantly alter the traditional relationship between land rights and kastom. However, the people of Mele remain rooted in the land, cultivating gardens and participating in decision-making about land. Mele's changing land rights, understood through the examination of socioeconomic and legislative influences on families' decision-making about land management, and the role of the modem village-based land development companies, presents an important case study of villagers successfully integrating cultural values with socioeconomic forces to shape contemporary land tenure.