SHIFTING CULTIVATION

79

Fig. i. Young man harvests sweet potatoes approximately seven months after clearing and three months
after planting. The six tubers were taken from the same spot. Pitpit appears at upper left (Dec., 1975).


gefahr sieben Monate nach der Rodung und drei Monate nach
und derselben Stelle geerntet. Man sieht Pitpit oben

Ein junger Mann erntet Siifikartoffeln un
dem Anpflanzen. Die sechs Knollen wurden an ein
links (Dezember 1975).
even increases slightly, there is enough arable
land available to support the present land use
system indefinitely.2
Families build and maintain their own gar-
dens. A family may build a garden apart from
other gardens, or, more frequently, a group of
families may build their gardens next to each
other and enclose the whole area with one
surrounding fence. The individual plots are
marked off with wooden stakes and each fam-
ily works in its own area. Most families have
two gardens at any one time: one under con-
struction and one in production.
In many shifting cultivation societies the

unit of ownership of land is the community,
tribe, or similar grouping. This situation does
not obtain for Yokona as neither clans nor the
community as a whole own land. Land is
owned by individual men who pass ownership
rights to their sons. If a man has no sons the
land may go to his daughter if she remains at
home after marriage. If a man has no children
the land goes to one of his cousins, preferably
his father’s brother’s son.
A family head can build a garden on any
land that is not being used by someone else,
even if he does not own the land. All that is
required is the owner’s permission, which is