Owners and occupants: mapping the Blaan of Malbulen (Davao Occidental, Philippines)

Abstract

Since the proclamation of the Indigenous People's Rights Act in 1997, the government of the Philippines has started to issue ancestral domain land titles, in an attempt to outline within its own legal framework how indigenous peoples should deal with land claims, disputes and ownership. Drawing on eleven months of fieldwork (2015-2019), this article describes the notions of ownership (fun) and occupancy (mnè) among the Blaan of Malbulen, and discusses whether their own views of the land are compatible with those proposed by the government. In fact, Blaan do not consider themselves to be the first inhabitants of the land. This status belongs to the fun spirits, its true owners, whose approval is needed to be accepted as an occupant, i.e. to build a house, to hunt, to cut down a tree or to cross a river. Humans are here believed to be mere occupants of the land. Places, humans and nonhuman beings are interwoven in ways that we have investigated through participatory and digital cartography. Mapping these beings reveals an interactive landscape. Its epistemology allows the anthropologist to question their own views and representations of space, and to understand how they may differ from local perspectives.

Territories of Fire : Indigenous Communities, Land, and Anarchy Among a Highland People in Mindoro

“…Scott 2009;. Rice is planted because it is like a currency which they sell and use the money to pay for their lowland debts or to buy ritual pigs (Rosales 2021; see also Laugrand et al 2021).…”

“…For this reason, similar to other ICCs, owning land does not give one right to exercise economic and other activities there only on the basis that one owns land through a certificate, map, title, or broadly through the law. Put differently, as in other ICCs land may be collectively defined through some forms of cultural practice (Gatmaytan 2004;Laugrand 2021).…”

“…In short, cultivation needs to be subjective to enliven the social relationship required for cultivating a land. It needs to be active; hence 'cultivates' -a term Laugrand (2021) uses -could refer to knowledge involved in cultivation acquired through active relations with others.…”

“…Through such an understanding, respect between communities on the basis of territoriality is reinforced through the knowledge that its inhabitants can live freely in those territories for as long as their family trees stand alive. Laugrand (2021) and Rival (2005) show that ICCs articulate the notion of territoriality through specific practices that affirm an inclusive accommodation of different beings in the conduct of forest life (Descola 2005;Kohn 2013). In Laugrand 2021, spirits are owners of the land, while in Rival 2005 non-humans like trees are parts of a territorial space where interactions even between conflicting groups of people become possible through what the trees symbolise.…”

“…) suggests that this particular treatment of the land is contrary to the law that recognises ownership as always communal. Among the Manobo, he notes, for example, that land is either individually or family owned but never communal property, a finding that contradicts Laugrand (2021). Yet, remarkably, other members of the community may access other community members' land and may gather the resources therein without finding conflict with its owner (Gatmaytan 2004).…”