[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

CHAPTER VII
ECONOMIC LIFE
As we have already mentioned, the Malekulans derive the
bulk of their food from three sources; the tilling of the soil,
ï¬Åshing, and hunting. Of these the ï¬Årst is from an economic
standpoint by far the most important, and it will be well, therefore,
to consider it ï¬Årst. Unfortunately, very little had been recorded
of the technique of agriculture, of the ways in which the land
is owned or held, and of the organization of work in the process
of preparing the ground, sowing, raising, and harvesting the
crops. It seems, however, that these matters are rather differently
arranged in South-West Bay and in the north-West districts.
LAND TENURE AND Tl-IE CULTIVATION or LAND
Seniang
In Seniang it is said that no piece of land is unowned, The
territory of the whole district is divided up among the different
local clans. Each one of these has a clearly deï¬Åned tract, some
of which is under cultivation, while some remains unreclairned
bush. Inland every such tract is marked off from neighbouring
tracts by lines of trees known as mzai oi, which word may be
translated “prohibition tree There is no particular species
of tree used for this purpose ; the mulamlr, which is prominent
in many Malekulan rituals, is very commonly planted, but
coco-nuts, bread-fruit trees, and others are also frequent. Indeed,
any line of trees all of the same species may be recognized as a
Mai ai. In the coastal districts a wall of coral blocks is set up
for a boundary. This clan land is subdivided into, or consists of,
smaller plots each of which " belongs to â€ù a certain kinship group.
The exact nature of this kinship group is not deï¬Åned, but it is
a subdivision of a clan, perhaps a number of people having a
common patrilineal great-grandfather. We are told that these
plots, which include both cultivated and uncultivated ground,
appear to be in a constant state of subdivision, repartition, and
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