oe
Veg
Settlement Pettern
Land use rights are possessed by people in moi'e than one piece of Land and
on different islands tnroughout the atoll. These rivhts are owned and held
by kin groups. The Land parcels are worked by the members of the Lineage
which holds these rights which are inherZted al birth primarily. The traditional
pattern of habitation is for households (fenily croups) to live on their
Llanc, not in a village cluster. That is, to live in a scattered pattern.
The community buildings, church, school, dispensary, Wamchouse, and the
like are however normally centralized for convenience and access to all.
This pattern is obviously desirable from the point of view of envernnmental sanitation and public health.
It is the pattern followed on Ujiimng
today and will probably be perpetuated m iGnewetak,
The typical Marshallese land holding, or wito , consists of a strip of
Land stretching across the island from la;jcon to ocean, and varying in size
from about one to five or more acres in extent. The resources of all of the
ecological zones of the islend are thus available to each corporate Land
holding group, the lineaze, as well as ready access to bath lagoon and
ocean beach. This method of equitable distribution of natural resources is
aialagous to that involved in strip Lranaing in medieval Surope,
A similar allocation of resources prevailed in aboriginal Havaii, and exists
on other iiicronesian atolls today.
infrequently, the Land parcel is diviced into two or more portions with
transverse bouncery Lines. Tris usually cccurs when tne island is a very
wide one.
The white -boundaries are marked by Lily plants (Crinum asiaticun),
os
med
Lepted
pieebha
_ =
RL bk
‘
~
*
Co.
me Ty
7
COCO.
ate
ws lke
e
ft
and
de Wheat s
.
se
rote,
ooo
Lt
:
Let
1
le
hot
Lok
.
lok
ox reompontly by slashes on the tronxs
2
-
.
Poy
as
+
De et
.
aN
os
.
Tey
tft tke
set FA
Dot ARCHIVES
OTe
we
.
Ly
wo LAL