Journal Articles

Post-Conflict Ambon: Forced Migration and the Ethno-Territorial Effects of Customary Tenure

---

In post-conflict contexts characterized by large-scale migration and increasing levels of legal pluralism, customary land tenure risks being deployed as a tool of ethno-territorialization in which displaced communities are denied return and secure land rights. This thesis will be illustrated through a case study of the Indonesian island of Ambon where a recognition of customary tenure — also called adat — was initiated in 2005 at the end of a high-intensity conflict between Christians and Muslims. Although a system of land tenure providing multiple forms of social security for the indigenous in-group, adat in Ambon also constitutes an arena of power in which populations considered as non-indigenous to a fixed historical territory are pushed into an inferior legal position. The legal registration of customary tenure therefore tends to be deployed to settle long-standing land contests with a growing migrant community, hereby legally enforcing some of the forced expulsions that were brought about by the recent communal violence.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Development and Change

Call Number

-

Publisher

Hoboken, United States : Wiley-Blackwell., 2010

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0012155x

Classification

-

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Volume 41 Issue 3, May 2010. Pages 401 - 419

Subject(s)

Post-Conflict Ambon
Conflict between Christians and Muslims in Ambon
Ambon-Indonesia

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment