Three Approaches to Study Land Tenure in Pastoral Societies in Post-Socialist States: A Proposal for a Synthesis

Abstract

Intellectual wrestling is going on among anthropologists, and the wider social science and humanities, concerning the use of appropriate concept in the study of land tenure in pastoral societies in post-socialist states. Anthropological research has been dominated by three competing concepts: property, territoriality and access.  The aim of this article is to appraise merits of each of theoretical approaches. Based on three rounds of ethnographic fieldwork among the pastoral Afar pastoral people near the Ethiopian, Eritrea, and Djibouti border triangle, it is the hypothesis of this article that it is time to jump on to the synthesis wagon to for study on land tenure in pastoral societies living in post-socialist states.