A Study of Legitimate Communal Resource Utilization for Well-being: A Case Study of the Resource Utilization Movement in Biche Village, Solomon Islands

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  • TANAKA Motomu
    Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

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  • 資源の共同利用に関する正当性概念がもたらす「豊かさ」の検討――ソロモン諸島ビチェ村における資源利用の動態から――
  • シゲン ノ キョウドウ リヨウ ニ カンスル セイトウセイ ガイネン ガ モタラス ユタカサ ノ ケントウ ソロモン ショトウ ビチェムラ ニ オケル シゲン リヨウ ノ ドウタイ カラ

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Abstract

<p>My main priority in this paper is to examine the concept of legitimacy upheld and exercised as a social criterion by the inhabitants of Biche village for a long period of time when they used their natural resources as communal assets. Secondly, I shall demonstrate how their concept of legitimacy has been modified in accordance with their demand for well-being, which also resulted in some negative influences on their community life.</p><p>The concept of legitimacy consists of four factors; liberality, generosity, reciprocal help and practice. “Liberality” means the making of mutual concessions in distributing the communal harvest and sometimes showing a willingness to give away the harvest to others. “Generosity” means respecting the communal use of natural resources and the prohibition of criticizing others. “Reciprocal help” means working together regardless of one’s own profit. The fourth is the respect for “practices” such as forest clearance, weeding, marking, and the transplanting of trees for assertion priority of resource utilization. For many years the Villagers of Biche enjoyed their well-balanced stable community life structured on the basis of the shared concept of legitimacy.</p><p>Since 1915, however, the wave of social modernization has gradually eroded their stable community life. For example, the propagation of Christianity introduced the idea of setting up borderlines, passenger boats started to stop over at the village and commercial logging commenced. Under the influence of capitalistic principles, the villagers became more concerned with obtaining profits of their own rather than appreciating “liberality”. The villagers preferred paid employment to “reciprocal help”. “Generosity” was diminished and they tried to set up restrictions and permit the use of natural resources only to a limited number of village inhabitants. The modernization wave caused conflict among the villagers.</p><p>In order to repair the relationships among the villagers, they wished to restore the value of “legitimacy”. However, its restoration brought about some negative effects in their pursuit of a better quality of life.</p>

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