COMMUNAL LAND TENURE I N CHILE'

WILLIAM \V. WINNIE, JR.

ABSTRACT. Communal land tenure exists as a minor system in Chile concurrently

with the predominant system of individual fee simple ownership, although Chilean law
does not provide for communal tenure. Cominunal holdings are found in the northern
desert highlands, in the northern dry-margin sector of the lands of Mediterranean cli-
mate, and in the Araucanian indigenous sector in the far south. The lands remaining in
communal tenure chiefly are of low productive capacity, as dry farms or pasturelands.
It is hypothesized that in a situation in which only a small fraction of the land is culti-
vable, and the remainder is of low carrying capacity, the highly productive lands tend
to become controlled by individual tcniire, whereas communal tenure tends to continue
on lands of low carrying capacity.

and those operating on the principle of private

TIIE systems b y whicli agricultural land
is owned, controlled, and operated consti-
tute one of the critical economic problems
of the world today. The term land tenure is
commonly applied to the general subject of thc
system of land control, and many kinds of
tenure systems have been in use within historic
times in various parts of the world. Although
the terms have not always been applied with
strict accuracy, patterns of tenure have been
given names such as tribal, communal, feudal,
tenant, freehold, and state. Within each
variety or system, distinctions are made as to
the ultimate ownership of the land itself,
the right to use it, and the right to its products.
In many early systems of tenure each right
was considered separately. In systems such
as the freehold, the land is owned in fee
simple; all rights accrue to the titleholder,
except that government normally retains some
power of eminent domain by which it can dis-
possess the titleholder.
Historically, systems of land tenure have
involved many complications in which rights
have been qualified by conditions of service,
payment of taxes, and patterns of abrogation
of old rights and the imposition of new. By
ignoring these complications it is possible to
make a rough division of tenure systems into
those operating on the principle of usufruct
1The rcscarch on which thi\ article is based was sibility or authority for maximizing its develop-
clone in connection with a grant as Fulbright Lectnrcr ment. There is relatively little recognition of
at the University of Chile. The author, for the year such problems, and governments frequently
1964-1965, is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the
h p a r t m e n t of Geography, University of California, do not deal effectively with them. Geogra-
Lo\ Angeles.
67
ownership. In the former the holder of rights
to the land has only rights to its use and its
products; he does not have the right to alienate
the land he uses. In the latter the holder
possesses all rights, including alienation of the
land itself.
In some countries only one system of tenurc
is officially recognized; in others, several
systems, all of which have official recognition,
may operate concurrently. There are many
variations, however, and the varieties of legal
disputes over land are legion, since there are
changes through time in the tenure systems
within an individual country. Current legal
disputes over Indian lands in the United
States are one manifestation of this. An over-
simplification would suggest that in the
economically more advanced countries, rela-
tively uniform tenure systems permit the
maximum development of land resources,
whereas in underdeveloped countries the lack
of uniformity results in an uneven economic
development of land resources. I n many un-
derdeveloped countries several types of tenure
systems which continue in use essentially
operate by the principle of usufruct. In some,
the ultimate ownership of the land is vested
in groups of people in which every member
has a right to some use of the land but, in
practical terms, no member has the respon-
phers generally recognize the importance of
65 WILLIAM
W. WINNIE,JR.
land development, but often have neglected
consideration of the whole subject of land
tenure.
The class of lands usually called communal
normally operates under a tenure system in-
volving the principle of usufruct, although
several variations are possible. In theory,
each user of the land should be careful not
to damage it in any way while exercising his
use-right. In practice, such lands often are
overused, particularly when the population
of the group is so large as to overtax the pro-
ductive capacity of the land, or when the land
is in a marginal situation in which there may
be periodic variation in its natural produc-
tivity. I n the former case, the rate of ex-
ploitation may simply become so excessive as
to cause deterioration of the land; in the
latter case the rate may be geared to a maxi-
mum productive capacity and thus become
overused during a bad year, e.g., a dry year,
a wet year, or some other form of environ-
mental variance away from the optimum.
Communal lands often are not provided for
in programs of land development in under-
developed countries, and the holders of the
ultimate rights to them are thereby excluded
from programs of economic development.
The result may be that a particular region of
a country then lags behind the rest in its
economic progress, and eventually constitutes
a drag upon the entire economy.
This study takes as an example the country of
Chile, in which a primary system of tenure
involving the freehold principle is well estab-
lished, but in which a minor system based on
the principle of usufruct remains operative.
This minor system is here termed communal,
and the study is focused upon lands owned,
controlled, and operated in a particular man-
ner. Although the participants in the control
of land by the communal system may also
participate in the control by the freehold
system, this fact is marginal to the primary
aim of the study and is merely noted in pass-
ing.
The concept of private property in land
is so thoroughly incorporated into the national
culture of Chile that, for most people of that
country, one characteristic of any tract of
land is that it has an owner. This owner
iisually ic :in intlivitlnal; the owner may also
March
be a commercial corporation or the national
government.
In the eyes of the local people of some areas
of the country, certain tracts of land belong
to the entire community2 rather than to certain
individuals. Each member of the community
has a right to use the communally owned tract,
but his permanent right applies to the holding
in its entirety, and not to any particular section
of it. Chilean law does not provide for this
situation in which the locality group, as ;I
group, owns a tract of land, and in which thc
individual's rights in that land are contingent
on his membership in the group.:' The dis-
tinction between the national land laws, on the
one hand, and local customs, on the other, is
of fundamental importance to an understantl-
ing of communal land tenure in Chile.
The difference between ownership of the
l m d and the nature and duration of the rights
of the individual to m'ikc use of the land is
also basic to any study of commiinal ltind
tenure. Communally owned lands can be, and
often are, used for productive activities which
are curried out on a strictly individual bajis.
No case of collective farming or grazing enter-
prises was encountered in the field in Chile,
nor are there any references to such Chilean
practices in the literature. Grazing and the
collection of firewood, which are the most
common uses of communally owned lands in
Chile, can be and, in fact, are carried out as
individual enterprises on the undivided hold-
ing. In those places in which communal land
is used for crops, making it necessary to assign
exclusive rights in a particular plot of ground
to a particular member of the community,
these exclusive rights are temporary and arc
Community, a s used throughout this paper, refers
to the locality group at the first or second level above
the nuclear family. It is made up of a number of
families who live in the same general area (often a
compact village or a ribbon settlement in a valley)
and who are dependent upon the same local com-
mercial establishments and other services. Con-
ceptually, communal land tenure can refer to land
ownership by larger units of the social structure, but
in Chile it does not.
Common pastures located just outside the gates of
the town, characteristic of some parts of Spain at the
time of the Conquest and included in the provisions
of the Laws of the Indies relating to the establishment
of new towns in the Americas, involved this type
of tenure. They arc not dealt with in this paper, how-
ever, since they do not occur in Chile, and are not re-
lated to the existing commnnnl holdings.
1965 COA~IAfUNALTENURE 69

contingent upon continued cultivation of the Reform Law which relate to communal lands
plot in question. in Atacama and Coquimbo) treats the com-
Communal land tenure is important in three munal holding as the joint property of certain
parts of the country: first, in the highlands individuals, and not as the property of the
of the northern desert provinces; second, in the community of which they are members. Each
semiarid lands in and adjacent to the northern title to an Araucanian communal holding lists
fringe of the region of Mediterranean ~ l i m a t e ; ~as coowner a cacique, or imputed leader, and
and third, in the Araucanian indigenous area all those who were his followers when the title
south of the Rio Bio Bio. There was no special was issued. Clearly, with the passage of time,
land legislation for the first two of these areas this practice produces great confusion in land
prior to enactment of the Agrarian Reform titles.
Law in 1962.5 In the two areas, most com-
munally owned tracts have been registered on ‘I’IW DESERT PROVINCES
the tax rolls in the names of certain specific
individuals on the basis of their claim to un- It is well known among geographers that
contested occupance from time immemorial, or the desert of the west coast of South America
they are listed in the individual names of the is among the driest in the world. Not a living
heirs of a common ancestor who, at some time plant is to be seen over vast areas in this re-
in the past, was sole owner of the land. Very gion. In the coastal range, and in the desert
few of thesc communal holdings have legal basins between it and the Andes, both crops
titles which have been duly recorded in the and pastures are restricted to small, specially
register of titles, as distinct from the tax roll. favored zones. No communal holdings were
found in these areas during fieldwork in the
The special legislation relating to lands be- summer of 1962, nor are there references to
longing to the indigenous population of the such properties in the literature con~ulted.~
southo (likc the provisions of the Agrarian Farther east, however, the zone known to
Chileans as the pre-cordillera (located along
G. M. McBride, Chile: Land and Society (New
York: American Geographical Society, 19%), pp. the western flank of the Andes at altitudes
248-53, briefly discusses such holdings in central from 8,000 to 13,000 feet) and the Chilean
Chile, noting that government officials denied the part of the Altiplano (from 12,000 to 16,000
cxistence of landholding patterns of this variety. feet above sea 1evel)a both receive sufficient
The general land laws are stated in the Cddigo
Civil, Libro ,TI, “De 10s bienes, y su dominio, posesibn,
us0 y goce, and the “Reglamento del registro con- desarrollo cle la Provinciu de Coutin (Santiago: Edi-
servatorio de bienes raices.” Article 40 of the Agrarian torial del Departamento de Extensi6n Cultural de la
Reform Law (Ley No. 15.020, D i d o Oficial de la Universidad de Chile, 1956), pp. 211-19.
Rephblica de Chile No. 25.403) empowers the Presi- 7 Along the narrow beach which exists at the foot
dent to establish, by decree, special provisions relating of the Coast Range in some parts of the north, as
to communal holdings in the provinces of Atacama around Paposo, and in a few canyons in that range,
and Coquimbo. This law stipulates, among other where the camanchaca (fog, sometimes with light
things, that these provisions must include registering mist) supports ti little vegetation, it is possible that
ownership of these holdings in the official names of the scanty population of fisher folk makes use of the
the communities to which they belong. However, it land on a common basis as pasture for a few goats,
also provides that, for all legal purposes, this is but without complying with the pertinent legal
equivalent to registration in the names of the in- formalities. This possibility was not checked in the
dividuals listed as members of the community in a field.
special document prepared under the provisions of The uppcr limit of the Altiplano lands is open to
this same article. At law, each communal holding some discussion, for the boundary between them and
remains the property of a group of individuals, as the peaks which rise to a maximum of approximately
individuals. Application of the provisions of Article 20,000 feet is not abrupt. The limit stated here is
40 of the Agrarian Reform Law will result in clarifica- near the upper limit of seasonally useful grazing land.
tion of title to communal holdings at one point in Wright, in his mimeographed paper, “Notes on Soils,
time, but it does not provide a permanent solution Natural Vegetation, and Land Use in the Department
even to that problem. Within a generation, the proc- of Arica, Province of TarapacB, Chile,” prepared in
esses of death and inheritance will introduce new collaboration with J. Astudillo, E. Melindez, and S.
complications. Alcayaga ( Santiago: Ministry of Agriculture, DECAT,
The laws now in effect have been published as Ley 1962), gives the following classification of Altiplano
de Indigenas No. 14.511. For a summary of earlier lands: 1) high plains without impeded drainage,
legislation see: Carlos Quezada Cid, “Legislacibn 3,750 to 4,280 meters, natural plant cover charac-
indigena” in Seminarw de inuestigacio’n sobre el terized by an open association of tussock grasses and

FIG. 1. The terraccd canyon walls at Putre and, beyond the terraces, connnon hill lands. Thc terraces 1)e-
tween the upper ant1 Io\ver c~iiialsarc 1 1 0 longcr culti\xtetl.
moisture to produce natural pasture of low
carrying capacity, and to support irrigated
agriculture on thc terraced walls of deep
canyons.!’
Tlie Pre-corrlillerti
Most of the population of the first of these
areas lives a sedentary life based on a com-
bination of cultivation and grazing. They
raise food crops and alfalfa under irrigation
on individually owned terraced lands. Their
herds of sheep, llamas, and alpacas, which
sinall shrubs; 2 ) alpine lioglancls, known locally as
bofeduabs, 3,900 to 4,300 meters, which appear to be a
type of “raised bog” which builds up peat at a very
slow rate, the main grazing areas; and 3 ) subalpine
uplands, about 4,300 to 5,000 meters, known locally as
Zluietales for the Laretia species which, before ex-
ploitation for fuel at least, is the dominant plant,
forming huge grcen mounds up to 150 centimctcrs
high.
A study of such terraces in the southern part of
the Central Andes is hcing carried out by Chris Field
of hlontana State Univrrsity.
hIarch
generally are brought back to the village each
night, graze during the day on nearby com-
munal pastures. The broad outlines of the
economy have changed little since Inca or
even pre-Inca times. However, communal
tenure practices may recently have dis‘ip-
peared in the cultivated lands.ln h 4 m y ter-
races, particularly those bet~7een the lower
and higher canals, have been abandoned. The
art of terrace-building has degenerated
greatly, if it has not been lost entirely. Alfalfa
is now planted on cropland which W ~ Sleft
fallow in the ancient rotation system, a i d
sheep have become more numerous than
llamas and alpacas. Settlements such as those
at Putre, Turi, and Peine are representative of
present tenurial arrangements in the pre-
cordillera.
The village of Putre (Fig. 1) is located
‘OC. M. RIcBiide, op. cit., footnote 4, pp. 362-64,
bricfly noted these collective holding5, and commented
o n their agricultural usc in the early 1930’s.
1965 COMMUNAL
FIG. 2. Llamas grazing on the Vega de Turi. The snow-capped peak in the background is the VolcBn
Paniri.
11,000 feet above sea level at the bottom of the
deep canyon of a tributary of the Rio Lluta. It
is one of the largest settlements of the pre-
cordillera, with a total population of 459,
according to the preliminary results of the 1960
national census, and one of the few villages
which can be reached by any type of motor
vehicle. The terraced land there which is
still cultivated belongs to individuals, many
of whom are said to possess duly registered
and up-to-date titles for at least some of their
several tiny, noncontinguous plots. Only the
terraces below the lower canal are cultivated;
those between the lower and upper canals
have been abandoned. The mountainous graz-
ing lands around the town, most of which lie
from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above sea level, are
communally owned. The maximum dimen-
sions of this communal holding are about four
kilometers from east to west, and five or six
kilometers from north to south. In 1910,
twenty-two residents of Putre, which then
had a total population of about 620, obtained
TENURE 71
four titles covering the various parts of this
holding. Each of these documents lists all
twenty-two individuals as coowners of the
land.ll Only one of the original coowners is
still alive; the children and grandchildren are
the present coowners of the communal land
but, according to some reports, few have gone
through the formalities required to put their
rights in their own names. The only survivor
among the original owners serves without
pay as president of a committee of three
directors who manage the routine affairs of the
holding. The principal function of this com-
l1 The documents themselves were not available
for examination at the time of my fieldwork in the
area; nor has this report been checked against official
records in Arica and Santiago. The statements con-
cerning titles are based on information from about
four different interviews which, in these respects, were
in agreement with one another. It is quite possible
that the documents in question refer to registration of
the land for tax purposes, and not to registration in
the Conservatorio de Bienes Raices for the purpose
of securing formal and up-to-date title documents.
 hlarch

F K ~-3.
. The people of inany communities in the desert provinces depend in part upon crops grown OJI
minute plots of terraced land of the type shown here, and in part on the stock they keep on conimunally held
pastures. The terraces shown here, located just outside the village of Aiquina, are on the wall of a valley
about two kilometers south of the communal land of the Vega de Turi shown in Figure 2.
1965 TENURE
COMMUNAL 73

FIG.4. The ccgu east o f Chiu-Chi. The land inside thc stone fenc.r Once was the common property of
the people of Cliiu-Chin, which can be seen in the distance. It now is a11 i~idivitlualholding belonging to a
faniily of foreigners who live outside the region.

mittee is to collect money from individual
members to pay the land tax, and to deliver the
funds collected to the local representative of
the national government. Those who have
rights in the communal land can pasture their
individually owned animals (mainly sheep but
also some cows, llamas, and alpacas) on that
land without limit, and can collect fuel for
their own use there, paying only a small share
of the total land tax.
Putre is located near the northern extremity
of the Chilean part of the pre-cordillera. Con-
siderably farther south, in the area drained
by the Rio Loa, lands of a strikingly different
physical type are held under the same sort
of tenurial arrangements. The grass-covered
basin floor 9,700 feet above sea level (called
the Vega d e Turi, such a basin being known as
a uega) is owned jointly by the heirs of a
group of original coowners from Turi and
Aiquina who obtained title to the land in 1918
(Fig. 2 ) . Here, as at Putre, the crops are
mainly alfalfa and, secondarily, corn and
various vegetables; they are grown on the
terraces on the canyon walls just outside
Aiquina (Fig. 3 ) , the principal settlement.
Individually owned sheep and llamas are pas-
tured on the undivided communal land of the
uega. One feature of the Turi communal
holding which may be unique is that once
a year all animals are brought together on the
vega and counted, so that contributions toward
payment of the land tax may be assessed in
proportion to the actual use made of each mem-
ber’s unlimited grazing right. The land out-
side the uega, covered with low desert shrub
and seldom of value for grazing, remains in
the public domain.
Vega lands, similar to those at Turi, also
occur around the nearby Chiu-Chiu oasis (Fig.
4 ) where, at an altitiide of 8,100 feet, the Loa
Canyon opens out into a basin several square
kilometers in area at the confluence of the approximately at the southern edge of the
Rio Loa with the Rio Salado. This vegn Salar de Atacama in the south.
is said to have belonged to the community as a
whole, but without formal title, until a family The Altiplano
of foreigners quietly made claim to it and The upper limit of cultivation (above which
obtained title from the Chilean Government. frost danger is so great at all seasons of the
A stone wall, approximately circular and now year that practically no crops are planted) lies
partly collapsed, surrounds the uega at a dis- slightly below the level of the lowest lands of
tance of about three kilometers from the town, the Chilean Altiplano proper. The sparse
passing just inside the precolonial cemetery. population of this area lives from herds in
The people of Chiu-Chiu now live principally which llamas and alpacas are the most
from the sale of vegetables and labor in Chu- numerous animals; sheep, although present,
quicamata, fifty-four kilometers away; the are much less important. The people lead
raising of livestock, mainly work antl milk a seminomadic existence. Their principal
animals, is only of minor importance. homes are located about 13,000 feet above
Most of the usable land around Peine, at tlie sea level, on the fringes of alpine boglancls
southeastern edge of the Salar de Atacama, is known locally as bof edales, where their ani-
either communally owned and used, or com- mals graze when no other pasture is available.
munally used but technically still in the public Even these lands, in most instances, seem
domain. When this community was studied to remain technically in the public domain,
a decade ago,12some residents considered their although local residents consider grazing
tiny plots of cropland to be individual prop- rights to pertain exclusively to themselves. For
erty, and had registered them on the tax rolls, a brief period during and shortly after the
even though they formed part of the com- rainy season, when pasture is available in the
munal holding. The pastures used, undivided, form of short-lived grasses and herbs in the
by the residents of Peine (except that at drier lands on which the toZn bush and thc
Tilopozo eighteen kilometers to the south- Zlnreta are the dominant perennial plants, the
west) were still in the public domain, but a people move with their herds to these area\,
formal “concession” had been requested.I3 where they live in temporary shelters.15
No effort has been made to identify all com- The Chilean Altiplano has been studied less
munal holdings in the pre-cordillera. The than any other part of the country. The pop-
residents of the major administrative and corn- ulation is small and widely dispersed over a
mercial centers give vague antl conflicting large x e J . Moreover, the people avoid con-
reports concerning tenurial :irrangements in tact with outsiders whenever possible.’” Tlie
the settlements within their areas of influence,
few available reports suggest that the con-
and those of the smaller places have con-
cept of private property in grazing land m‘iy
crete knowledge concerning only their im-
mediate surroundings. In order to obtain any be totally absent from the region, and that
sort of quantitative idea concerning commimal practically no titles have been issued to land
tenurial arrangements in the pre-cordillera, it located there. Except in the few plciccs in
ry to visit all or nearly d l of wliicli rich mineral deposits have 1)ccn di\-
the agricultural localities of the region.” For covcred and claimed by outsider.;, the AyInarL
tlie moment, it appears likely that sucli speaking inhabitants have not lost the land
arrangements are the rule in the grazing from which they make their meager living
lands of the pre-cordillera, and that the limits \imply l)ec,iii\e no one else has con\itlered it
of their distribution are beyond the Peruvian
and Holivinn lmrders in thc north and c w t , antl C. Kcller, El Dcyartamenlo de Aricn (Santiago:
Editorial Zig-Zag, 1946), p. 199; and A. C. S. Wright
arid J. Astudillo, “Lo5 Bofedales-Alkaline Cnshion-
G. Mostny, Peines t m piichlo ritcicamcrio ( Santi- Bog Peats of the Srmi-Arid Chilean Altiplano,”
ago: Institiito t l c Gcogrdia tlr In Universitlatl tlr Chile, mimeographed (Santiago: Ministerio tle Agriciiltiira,
1954). IIECAT, 1962).
Mostny, op. cit., p. 73. See I. Bowman’s accoiint in Desert Trails of
l 4 Such a task could 1 1 carried
~ ~ oiit most cfficiently Atcrcrrmn ( Npw York: Arnc.ricacui Ct,ographicnl Society,
as :in integral part of a national agricultural ccnsiis. 1924).
1965 COhIMUNAL TENURE
La
FIG. 5 . Known communal holdings in the area
from the €Iuasco Valley to about the latitude of
Santiago. Each circle represents one communal hold-
ing except in the densest chister, where overlapping
hides a few of the synibols. Such properties in the
Province of Atacania, north of the first provincial
boundary shown on the map, are represented by
larger circles than the others because the only such
holdings shown are those which were located in the
field, and omissions codd be numerous. On the
other hand, representation is believed to be essen-
tially complete for the Province of Coquimbo, be-
tween the two provincial boundaries shown on this
map; a recent study attempted to locate and plot on
aerial photographs the boundaries of all communal
7.5
worthwhile to stake out holdings in so inhos-
pitable a region.
Other Areas in the Northern Dmmt
Provinces
Elsewhere in the arid north, the land that
is of any agricultural worth at all seems to
have passed into private hands either during
the early stages of the nitrate boom of the late
nineteenth century, or at some earlier date.
Such is the case in the irrigated valleys of the
lower reaches of the Lluta, Azapa, Camarones,
Tana, Tiliviche, and Loa rivers where they
cross the pampas west of the Andes. In these
valleys, ancient graveyards, refuse heaps, and
petroglyphs all bear witness to pre-Spanish
occupance and, therefore, to communal land
tenure. The tamamgo forest area (at about
3,000 feet above sea level in the Pampa del
Tamarugal, east of the line of now-abandoned
nitrate establishments from Zapiga to La-
gunas ) became a center of vegetable and char-
coal production for the mining enterprises in
the last century; it was probably carved up
into individual holdings at that time." On
the other hand, the Pica oasis, irrigated by
springs which emerge from the sand which
now buries older valleys, was hispanified at
an early date, and no memory of communal
rights in agricultural land remains today.
Among these valley and pampa settlements,
only that in the tamurzigo forest has any sig-
nificant amount of natural grazing land, and
this is used not only to support a small number
of goats, but also for charcoal production, the
main commercial activity there.
THE DRY MARGINS OF THE
MEDITERRANEAN REGION
In the Altiplano, as in the pre-cordillera,
present communal land tenure practices
appear to be of pre-Spanish origin. This is not
the case in the dry margins of the region of
l7The tairiurugo forest, an open association dom-
inated by low trees similar to the mesquite of North
America, is supported by a high, though somewhat
saline, water table fed from the mountains to the east.
holding\ theic. The holdings shown in the provinces
south of the secoritl political boundary are those
which appear on the 1 : 100,000 map3 by the Insti-
tuto Geogrifico Militar.
'76
Mrtli terran ean cliina te , to wli icli our at ten tion
is now turned. Peine is the southernmost of
the permanent settlements of the pre-cordillera
of the north; the Copiap6 Valley, in which the
next significant agricultural settlements are
located, lies somc :300 miles south of Peinr:. It
is a triie oasis, the nortliernmost of a series of
transverse vallcys irrigated by permanent
strrums f t d 1)y t l i c rain and snow ~ l i i c l 1fall
March
liigli in the Ancles. The frcqucncy of winter
rains, which might best he stated in t e r m
of the number of years between rains at
Copiaph, increases rapidly toward the south.
At the Huasco Valley, in which Vallenar is
sitnated, pasttire exists oii the adjacent uplaiitl
siirface often enough to make these lantls
\vorthy of appropriation for grazing piirposes.
I w a s told hy inforiiinnts in the iirea that, at
 FIG. 611. The land which is not in communal holdings is idcmtificd b y shading. The borindaries of corn-
iiiuilal holclings are the only ones shown in the drawing.

one time, there was abundant forage near the
coast. Today the surface there, as most of the
way upstream to El Carmen (where the two
major tributaries which form the Huasco
converge), is virtually bare except during brief
periods after each rain. This southward ad-
vance of the desert has come about: 1) As a
result of the extraction of virtually all wood
used to supply the demand for fuel in mining
establishments farther north during the nine-
teenth century and, 2 ) Where some vegetation
survived the mine-fuel cutting, as a result of
overgrazing. From El Carmen eastward, how-
ever, the upland adjoining these valleys pro-
duces pasture in all but the driest years, per-
haps because its more isolated position made
the production of charcoal a less lucrative
activity there in the nineteenth century, or per-
78 \f7JLLIAhC 11‘. TT’INNIE, JR. R? arch

FIG.7 . A valley settlement in Coquimbo. The location of the houses on the valley wall near the highest
irrigation ditch, and above the upper limit of the cultivated land, is characteristic of this area. The hill lands
i n the hackgroantl arr part of it coirrmunal holding in which many of the rcsidcnts of this part of the valley
have rights.

haps because precipitation is sufficient to make
range destruction a slower process which has
not yet had time to reach completion. Here
are found the northernmost communal hold-
ings of a type characteristic of the hilly to
mountainous area north of the Central Valley.
Figure 5 shows the distribution of such hold-
ings; the southern limit of this clistribiition has
not yet been determined, but as can be seen
from the map, some coininunal lands are to be
found as far south as Santiago.
These communal liolclings are used for win-
ter pasture and for the collection of wood for
sale in thc larger valley settlements, either as
wood or as charcoal. Some conimuneroslR
have small irrigated individual holdings in one
of the valleys, in addition to their rights in the
cornmimil land. Their liouses are located
in the valley, usually in a ribbon settlement
lST1’hose who h a w lights in a communal holding.
just abovc the higher edge of the cultivated
land, or in a larger village with n rectangular
street pattern, such as San Fdix. The rights
of these people in the communal holding, and
their small herds of goats, are often of second-
ary importance to them; agriculture is their
main source of income, and their livestock
serves the combined functions of insurance
against loss of crops and as a savings ac-
count.19 Other comuneros depend almost
exclusively upon the communal land in com-
bination with rented summer grazing rights
in the mountains. They live primarily from
their herds of goats, kept in the mountains
in summer and in the communal holding in
R. Raraona, X. Aranda, and R. Santana, Valle dc?
Putacndo: Estudio de mtructura agruria (Santiago:
Instituto de Geogralia de la Universidad de Chile,
1961), pp. 105-06, discuss in detail the relationship
between crop farming and livestock in such holdings
of the Putaendo Valley.
winter, and sccondarily from the collection
and sale of firewood. Their crude houses are
located in the hills of the communal holding.
These goatherds are among the poorest people
to be found in the region; their cash income is
largely limited to that received from the sale
of cheese, skins, and wood or charcoal, plus
pay for an occasional day of labor on a larger
valley holding. In times of drought, as during
the List ten years, many turn to mining, either
on a small scale on their own behalf within the
region, or as laborers in the mining centers
farther north. If the drought is severe and
prolonged, goats all but disappear from
the landscape, only to reappear again when
the drought ends.
The communal possession of hill lands used
for extensive pasture and wood collection,
in conjunction with individual ownership of
irrigated valley cropland, is characteristic of
the entire zone dong the Andean front in Co-
quimbo and Aconcagua. Cultivation is rare in
the lands of communal holdings in this zone.
Farther west, in central and southern Co-
quimbo, this is not the case (Fig. 8 ) . Rainfall
there is adequate in the wetter years to pro-
duce unirrigated wheat on the flatter inter-
fluves, and dry-farming is an important ele-
ment in the economy of many of the communal
holdings (Fig. 9). As in the area nearer the
Andes, irrigated valley land is held individii-
ally, but in many cases little if any of this land
belongs to comuneros. Some people who have
rights in communal holdings have no such land
at all, and depend exclusively upon the re-
soiirces of the semiarid upland. Again, goats
are important. As in other communal holdings,
the land in general is unfenced; one part of the
work of preparing an upland field for planting
for the first time is to fence it, ordinarily with
living organ cactus, to keep livestock out. Each
comunero has a right to grow his crops, mostly
wheat, on the communal land. Choice of
location of the field is limited only by existing
fields in many such holdings, but generally
one must secure the approval of community
leaders before beginning to prepare the land.
Once a part of the communal land has been
put under cultivation by a member, he prob-
ably has some prior claim to use of the parcel
in all communal holdings. In some, including
the large community of Manquehua, he
acquires rights which, in the eyes of other
members, may be transmitted by inheritance.
However, the same field is often cultivated for
only a few years, and then relinquished in
favor of a new location because of soil or
moisture depletion.
Transhumance is an essential feature of the
pattern of animal husbandry. The communal
holding serves the goatherd as something
of a home base, to which he returns for at
least a few months each winter. There his
animals graze freely on the undivided land
without payment of the pasture fees locally
called taluje. But often he is to be found some-
where else. In summer, the lower pastures dry
out, and the herds are moved to rented pastures
high in the Andes, often on the Argentine side
of the border, from which they return only at
the first menace of snow in March or April. The
more fortunate comuneros are able to keep
their flocks all winter on the upland communal
pastures of their home communities or on the
harvested fields in adjacent valleys; but many
musf move farther out toward the coast where,
as in the mountains, they must pay for grazing
rights. Figure 10 shows the seasonal move-
ments of a herd of goats typical of the latter
type of transhumance; note that only about
one-fourth of the year is spent in the home
community.
The special case of Cano Gallego, an ex-
tremely large communal holding high in the
Andes in Aconcagua Province (Fig. 5 ) , merits
separate consideration even though it appears
to be unique.2o This holding, the land of which
never has been measured, includes an area of
at least 180 square kilometers at altitudes from
6,000 feet to the tops of the snow-capped
peaks. It is used exclusively for summer pas-
ture, principally for cattle, which are left un-
attended except for brief periods when they
are moved from pastures in one part of Cano
Gallego to those in another. Those who havc
rights in the holding are for the most part
owners of small irrigated parcels of land dis-
tributed throughout the Aconcagua drainagc
basin. In 19S7, there were 1S3 regular associ-
ates who had duly registered their rights,
about twice as many passive cornuneros who
had not then registered their rights but who
Baraona, Aranda, and Santana, op. cit., footnote
19, pp. 11Z13 and 119-24, present much more
detailed information on this holding, from which the
following summary has been prepared.

FIG.8a. Land of communal holdings in the flatter uplancl area south of Ovalle. Scattered unirrigated
wlic:it ficlcls :ire Ii;irc>ly i ~ i s i l ~i ll l( ~tlic flattcr :ireas.
contributed to paynient of thc iinaiicial obliga-
tions of the holding, and over a thousand
others who clandestinely sent their cattle to
these pastures. Some, at least, of the latter
do so because their fathers and grandfathers
before them sent their animals to the same
pastures and never paid for the privilege.
Virtually all of the other high mountain land
south of central Coquimho belongs to large
hlarch
individual lowland holdings, which it servcs
a s a sort of higliland annex; the o\vncrs
use this land for suinmer pasture for their own
stock, and many rent grazing rights to those
who have no such land of their own. No
doubt many owners of sniall herds send their
stock clandestinely to individually 0~7ned
mountain pastures, just a s others send theirs
to Cano Gallego.
1965 TENURE
COMMUNAL 81

FIG.8b. The land which is not in communal holdings is identified by shading. The boundaries of com-
iriunal holdings are the only ones shown in the drawing. The heavier dashed boundary is that of El Divis-
atlcro, ;i community whose claims overlap those of several other comniunal holdings.

The dry margin of the region of Mediter-
ranean climate is periodically subject to pro-
longed droughts which bring disaster to many
of the inhabitants. The comtmeros, especially
those who have no irrigated land, are more
seriously affected than those who live in the
commercial centers or on the large individual
holdings which occupy most of the remainder
of the area. They are dependent upon what
they can produce on land resources which
are meager in relation to the size of the pop-
ulation even in humid years. When the rains
fail, the unirrigated cropland must go un-
planted, and the pastures, overstocked even
in wet years, dry up. Goats literally die by the
thousands. During such periods there is prac-
tically a mass movement of comuneros to min-
ing centers farther north, where they work
 WILLIAM
111. WINNIE,JR. hIarch

FIG.9. A threshing floor in the Manqnehua communal holding, part of which is shown in Figure 8.

as laborers while anxiously awuiting word places I was told that the derecho de eslan-
that the drought has ended so that they may cia,'l as the rights in the communal pastures
again return to their homes. It is to be ex- are known, is always, and automatically, trans-
pected that soil erosion would be more or less ferred with ownership of the valley land. In
severe in such an area. Most of the grazing others, these two types of right are said to lie
land is in gentle to moderately steep slopes, subject to separate transactions.
and population growth has so greatly reduced No evidence has been found to suggest any-
the amount of resources available per user that thing other than a colonial or postcolonial
it would be surprising if the pastures were not
origin for any of the present communal hold-
overexploited. The problem of resource de-
struction is general in the area. Overstocking ings of the dry margins of the Mediterranean
is not limited to communal holdings, nor does region. Only one case has been documented in
it appear to be more severe on those holdings which an encomendero moved an entire com-
than on much of the individually owned graz- munity of Indians entrusted to him from
ing land in the same immediate area. With a irrigable land, which he wished to use himsclf,
fcw striking exceptions, individual owners also to another part of his land grant, where hc
allow their ranges to be overstocked. ceded a tract to the indigenous group. This
Most communal holdings of this region are communal holding does not appear to differ
registered on the tax rolls in a number of in- significantly from others in the same area at
dividual names; some still may be in the name
of one long-deceased common ancestor of the
The term estancia is used throughout this area to
present comuneros. Few, if any, are covered refer to natural grazing land in interfluve areas, in-
by titles which are in proper order. In several dependently of tenurial considerations.
1965 COhIhlUNAL TENURE s3

FIG. 10. A typical three-stage seasonal movement of livestock between the lower land near the coast and
the high momitains. The animals are in the home corninunity near Tulahuin only about one-fourth of the
).tYir.

present.22 In every other case which has capacity cannot be subdivided indefinitely if it
been examined, the communal holding stems is to remain useful. At the same time, the in-
from an individual holding, usually an early heritance laws of Chile have long been such
grant or a subdivision thereof, which was held that, if the deceased had little but his land,
and used undivided by the heirs of the sole all of his children receive equal parts of that
owner through several generation^.^^ The land. Only those families which have large
natural and economic bases for this seem amounts of other resources can pass on a large
quite sound. Pastureland of low carrying holding intact to one of several heirs; they
accomplish this by compensating the others
2 2 Humberto Fucnznlida, unpublished field notes,
from the remaining assets. The result has been
1951, “Valle Hcrmoso”; and R. GonzAles M., “Com- the development of many areas of individually
munidades agricolas en Chile,” lnformaciones geo- owned and often highly fragmented mini-
grdficas, Afio I, No. 2 (July 1951), pp. 3 4 3 5 . This
article deals almost exclusively with Valle Hermoso, fundia in the irrigated valley land, and corn
the community in question. munally owned pasture and woodland in the
23 Baraona, Aranda, and Santana, op. cit., footnote adjacent interfluve areas. This pattern prob-
19, pp. 128-32; J. Borde and M. G h g o r a , Evolucio’n
de la propiedad rural en el Valle del Puangue (Santi- ably emerged while the similar system, charac-
ago: Institnto de Sociologia de la Uuiversidad de Chile, teristic of some parts of Spain, still lived 011
1956), passim; and, espccially, Carlos Grebe and in the traditions of the people. The institution
Crist6bal Unterrichter in an unpublished draft report
on their work in the Province of Coquimbo in January, of communal pastures was kept alive in the
1961. early (1556-1583) grants of grazing rights
84 WILLIAhl
in Chile and, although it thereafter dis-
appeared from the formal grants and from
the land la\vs, the “derecho tEe esiuncia“ in
practice seems to have been taken for grantecl
tlirougliout the colonial period, regardless of
the ownership of the hill land involved.2k
I t is to be noted that on the arid margins
of the region of Mediterranean climate, the
present communal holdings developed froin
;Lsystem of individual ownership, in theory if
not in practice, of all agricultural and grazing
lnnd, whereas in the pre-cordillera of the
cxtrerne north, where no large holdings were
granted to Spaniards during the colonial
period,25 the practice of individual ownership
of cultivated land was grafted upon the earlier
institutions involving the communal ownership
of all land. The end product of the cvolu-
tionary process in the two areas has proven
quite similar.
‘I‘HE INDIAN RESERVATIONS OF THE SOUTH
When the Araucanian Indians finally were
subdued a century ago, special laws were
adopted to safeguard their land rights. These
laws, which also attempted to permit the
Araucanians to continue their system of com-
munal land tenure by registering their holdings
iis the joint property of a number of individual
coowners, did not prove satisfactory in their
original form. They have been subsequently
revised and even replaced by new but similar
laws 0 1 1 several occasions, most recently in
1961. Chilean law always has hopefully
offered provisions to convert the Araucanians
to a system of individual land tenure, but few
of the Indians have chosen to make use of
those provisions.
At the time they were subdued, the Arau-
canians lived in small, loosely affiliated groups;
;I broader tribal organization existed only for
the purpose of making war against invaders.
There was no shortage of land in this forested
rcgion, and apparently a newly formed family
cleared its fields in any still-unoccupied place
it chose within the broad and vaguely defined
zone occupied by the larger group. The neiv
fields became a species of limited individual
holding, which lacked the potential com-
mercial aspects characteristic of European
private property, and in which exclusive rights
24 Borde and Gbngora, op. cit., footnote 23, pp.
34-36 and 87.
25 Keller, oil. cit., footnote 15, p. 178.
\%\ v IlN.N I E , JR. hlarch
may have been limited to the growing season
( tenure by usufruct) .2‘i
The completion of the conquest appears to
have had little immediate effect on this system.
Efforts were made by the Chilean Government
to find, identify, and issue titles to the Araii-
canian leaders. These titles supposedly listed
all persons in the group by name, and con-
ferred limited joint ownership of the land
then occupied by them. In practice, an area
of about six to eight hectares per person \vas
granted to each group, with but little variation
from place to place.2i At about the sanie
time, special Indian courts were established,
partly to safeguard the interest of the Arau-
canians from settlers of European descent who
soon began to arrive, and partly to divide each
reservation into individiial holdings as soon a s
enough of the members requested it. Sale of
Indian land without approval of one of tl~ese
courts has always been prohibited, an ex-
pedient which in most cases prevented the loss
of Indian land to the new settlers.zx Tl1c
Araucanians have never demonstrated milch
enthusiasm over the facilities offered them for
dividing their reservations into individual
holdings. Of the total of approximately O,OOO
reservations including 475,000 hectares for
which titles were issued at one time or another,
nearly ninety-five per cent continued on ;I
communal basis in 1952.?!’ In these reserva-
tions the individual has, in principle, an un-
divided right in the land. His crops are his
own individual enterprise carried out o n Iuntl
in which, in practice, he has exclusive arid re-
2‘; This summary is based principally on the follow-
ing sources: J. h l . Cooper, “The Araucanians,” Hand-
hook of South American Indians (Washington: The
Sinithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 143, Vol. 11, 1946), pp. 687-760; Quezada,
077. cit., footnote 6; A. Lipschutz, La comunidad in-
digena en Ame‘rica y en Chile (Santiago: Eclitorial
Universitario, 1958); L. Picasso S. “La propiedad
agricola y su extensibn,” in Seminario de inuestigacidn
sohre el desarrollo de la Prooincia de Cautin, op. cit.,
footnote 8, pp. 107-20; and Victor Labbi: Zubicueta,
“Divisihn de la communidad indigena,” Seminario . . .
de Cautiiz, op. cit., footnote 6, pp. 221-31. G. M.
XlcBride, op. cit., footnote 4, chapter 12, pp. 308-13
briefly discussed the Araucanian system and Chilean
Government subdivision on Indian lands.
3i All sources listed in footnote 28, and an interview
with Guillerino Muii6z Mena of the Direccibn tlc
Asuntos Indigenas in l’emuco, January 25, 1982.
p8 Quezada, op. cit., footnote 8.
Lipschutz, op. cit., footnote 28, p. 173.
1965 TENURE
COMMUNAL
FIG.11. Unfenced pasture in an Amucnnian reservation near Cholchol.
ncwahle rights while his crop is being pro-
duced. H e also has joint rights to pasture his
stock and cut wood for his own use on reserva-
tion land not in crops or in housesites, a right
which is extended to include joint use of
former fields for pasture once the crop has
been harvested.
Where the reservations are small, as is gen-
erally the case, their inhabitants are almost
automatically exogamous because of incest
taboos. As a result of this and of the provisions
of the Civil Code, which make obligatory
eqiial inheritance by all children, it is now
quite common for a single family to have rights
in two or more reservations.
In the south, as in the parts of Coquimbo
where communal holdings are not associated
with individually held valley cropland, culti-
vated land as well as pasture belongs to the
group rather than to the individual; in both
cases, there is little difference in physical
quality between cropland and much of the
pastureland. Elsewhere, communal tenure in-
volves grazing land which differs strikingly
from the individually owned cropland used by
85
the same people, not only in natural character,
but also in that the latter has been improved
by man throiigh the construction of irrigatioii
works iund, in many cases, terraccs.
C O M M U N A L HOLDINGS A N D
THE AGRARIAN REFORM MOVEMEN I'
The Chilean Government adopted a basic
agrarian reform law in 1962. This law provides
a legal basis for land reform, but leaves many
of the details to be worked out by later laws
or executive decrees. If a serious effort is made
to divide the large land holdings into some-
thing resembling family-size farms, and to
consolidate the existing minifundia into units
which will provide an adequate living for their
owners, it is possible that some type of com-
munal tenure would offer the most workable
basis for the redistribution of rights in grazing
lands. Nevertheless, the present communal
holdings are thought of as a bundle of prob-
lems for which no solution is readily apparent.
Among these problems are soil destruction,
title and boundary disputes, and extreme
poverty espccially in times of drought. In
many cases, the community with which com-
mon pastures are associated is made up almost
entirely of minifundistas, a situation which is
disguised, but not altered, by the joint use of a
large area of low-grade p a ~ t u r e l a n d . ~
The
~ time, present problems which should be over-
problems arise, not from the existence of com-
mon grazing rights, but from land scarcity,
inadequate range management, and other
aspects associated with the same communities
in which such rights occur.31
The subdivision of those upland pastures
which now belong to vast individual holdings
among the beneficiaries of any far-reaching
land reform program would probably result
in units so small as to be unmanageable; it
would be extremely difficult, if not impossible,
to do it in such a way as to make provision for
the fact that most natural pastures in Chile
can be used only at certain seasons of the
year. Community ownership of upland pas-
tures would provide a solution to this problem
which would be in accord with established
rural Chilean traditions and, at the same
time, would make possible the rational use of
such land by small-scale farmers who live
primarily froin the cultivation of valley land
hut at the same time have small herds which
€orm an integral part of their agricultural
operations.
In this respect, the parallels between the
inquilino and the comunero cannot be over-
emphasized. The former, as a resident laborer
on a large holding, is given permission to plant
a small plot on his own account and to pasture
ii limited number of his own animals on the
owner’s land. These privileges constitute part
of the compensation he receives for his work
on hehalf of the owner of the land. Since the
inqidino often remains on the same holding
throughout his entire life, his situation with
respect to his cultivated plot is, in practice,
quite similar to that of the comzinero with re-
spect to the valley minifundio. By the same
token, his right to make use of the upland
pastures of the large holding, although of a
different nature in the legal sense, closely re-
wnbles the comunero’s right in the communal
holding in practice.
This situation is expressly recognized to some
cxtrnt in the parts of the Agrarian Reform Law
dealing with landholding communities in Atacaina
:md Coquimho.
“‘This point clearly is not recognizcd in the
Agrtirian Reform Law.
The communal holdings which now exist in
Chile at once offer a basic pattern which
might be incorporated in the land reform
program to good advantage and, at the samc
come before that pattern is adopted as part
of the agrarian structure to be produced
through land reform. Common ownership of
grazing land would enable the beneficiaries of
agrarian reform to carry out small-scale stock
raising without requiring the division of the
land into parcels smaller than consistent with
the extreme local variability of rainfall and
the need to use different areas at different
seasons of the year. In some cases the prob-
lems related to the present communal holdings
themselves suggest possible solutions. Legal
recognition of the local rural community,
not its individual members, as owner of the
upland pastures would seem prerequisite to
establishing a workable system. Similarly,
some procedure to prevent overstocking and
excessive woodcutting on communal holdings
appear indispensable.
TIIEORElXAL IMI’LICA’ITONS
It has been pointed out that in the pre-
cordillera and in the valley settlements of the
hilly to mountainous lands adjoining the
Central Valley on the north, the irrigated
cropland now is in individual holdings and
the upland, which cannot be irrigated by
means now within reach of the local inhabi-
tants, is in communal pastures. In the south,
and in thc parts of Coquimbo in which dry-
farming on interfluve areas is important, on
the other hand, cropland as well as pasture
belong to the community. An hypothesis
which might later be tested with data from
other parts of the world may be developed
froin these observations. In some parts of thc
world, only a minute fraction of the total area
can be cultivated and the remainder of the
land is of very low productivity. In such areas,
the situation is favorable for the development
or introduction of private individual holdings
in the cropland, if the area is occupied by an
agricultural society which traditionally liolcls
the land in common; or, if the society is oiic
in which individual holdings are the rule, it is
favorable for the development or introduction
of communal tenure practices in the uncultiv,i-
ble upland.