208 THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS 



of the manner in which groups of men among these races drew 

 their means of subsistence from clearly defined areas. ' Among 

 the Navahos a section of territory was parcelled out and held as 

 clan land and, as descent in the tribe was traced through the 

 mother, was spoken of by members of the clan as " my mother's 

 land ". Upon such tracts the woman worked raising maize, &c., 

 and the product was recognized as their property.' ^ Of the 

 North- American Indians generally we are told that ' occupancy 

 gradually established a claim or right to possess the tract from 

 which a tribe or individual derived food. This occupancy was 

 the only land tenure recognized by the Indian ; he never of him- 

 self reached the conception of the land as merchantable. ... As 

 long as a person planted a certain tract the claim was not dis- 

 puted, but if its cultivation were neglected, any one who chose 

 might take it. Among the Zuni, according to Gushing, if a man, 

 either before or after marriage, takes up a field of unappropriated 

 land, it belongs strictly to him, but is spoken of as the property 

 of his clan, or on his death it may be cultivated by any member 

 of that clan, though preferably by near relatives, but not by his 

 wife or children, who must be of another clan.' ^ So, too, among 

 the Omahas maize was cultivated in patches of one-half to three 

 acres in size ; property in these patches was recognized so long 

 as cultivation was continued. Afterwards any one could take 

 them.3 In Mexico there was an elaborate system of land tenure.* 

 Conditions in South America were very similar to those in North 

 America. Spix and Martins speaking of Brazil say : ' The 

 savages consider the lands they have put under cultivation to be 

 in some measure the property of their tribe. . . . One or several 

 famihes unite to clear a part of the virgin forest and plant maize, 

 manioc, cotton, or bananas. . . . The same ground is cultivated 

 every year, because it would be too difficult every yeai to clear 

 new portiono of the forest. ... A field cultivated for several years 

 is considered to belong to a family, and the neighbours recognize 

 these rights.' ^ 



The rights over land are very similar in Africa. Bartle Frere 

 says that ' it is clear, from the accounts of early Dutch and other 

 travellers in South Africa, that every Hottentot tribe had its 



^ Handbook of American Indians, Article 'Property'. * Ibid., Article 



' Land Tenure '. ^ pietcher and La Flesche, 27th A. R. B. E., p. 269. Dorsey 



(loo. cit., p. 366) gives further details. ■• Joyce, Mexican Arcliaeolofjy, p. 110. 



* Spix and Martins, vol. i, p. 83. 



