Property.
Cattle, houses and so on are the property of the individual, but land can be held either by the village, a “morung,” a clan, or an individual. The land close to a village is usually waste land and common property, as are the rights of “poisoning” in certain pools. Every “morung” owns land which is the property of the “morung” as a whole and not of any individuals in it. It is worked by the boys of the “morung” and the produce used to buy meat for ceremonies such as the rebuilding of the “morung.” Boys when they get married and leave the “morung” have to pay a small fine of meat to their late companions as compensation for the loss of labour. A very large proportion of the land in the Lhota country is clan land, which is held in common by all members of that particular clan in the village. A man who leaves a village loses all right to clan land in the village, a far better system than the Sema system by which a man claims, though usually in vain, ancestral rights in clan land in a village in which his great-great-grandfather was the last member of the family to live. Every year the members of the clan in a Lhota village meet and [[98]]apportion out the land which each is to cut that year, the senior men getting the bigger share. Strangely enough this delicate operation never seems to result in a quarrel. Strictly speaking a man may not sell land which he has inherited. When direct heirs fail the land becomes clan land. Were this to go on indefinitely the whole of the land in a village would in time become clan land, and no one would ever be able to buy or sell land. To prevent this from time to time, when the amount of common land becomes unwieldy, the clan meets and divides it up among the members, who thus each become private owners of a portion of it. The process then begins again. Heirlooms such as the ancient daos and spears which the Lhota so prizes are held in trust by the senior member of the clan in the village, provided he has done all the social “gennas.” To alienate them would bring disaster on the whole clan.
Inheritance.
Property is inherited exclusively by the male heirs. Failing sons or grandsons, brothers, brother’s sons, first cousins in the male line, and so on, inherit in that order. The need of the heirs is the primary consideration, a system which in theory is almost ideal and in practice works excellently. An actual example taken at random will make the details more easily understood. A died, leaving a widow and three sons B, C and D, of whom B was the oldest and D the youngest. Of the rice, which was by far the most valuable part of the property, B got half a granary, C one granary and D three granaries. What cash there was was divided in the same proportions. D also got the house. In this case B got least because he was married and independent and had done all his social “gennas.” C got rather more than B because, though he was married and independent, he had not finished his “gennas.” D got most of all because he still had his marriage price to pay and all his “gennas” to do, and had to live with and support his mother in his father’s old house. The widow inherited nothing in her own right. Had there been a married daughter she would [[99]]have got nothing. An unmarried daughter, however, would have lived with her mother and been supported by D, who would have had his share increased accordingly. Had all the sons been married either the widow would have been given enough to live on and the rest shared by the sons, B getting slightly the largest share, or supposing the widow were too old and feeble to work for herself, she would either have been supported by all the brothers jointly, or by one of them who would have been given a proportionately larger share. In short, where one or more brothers have had their marriage prices paid and have been launched into the world by their father, they get less than a younger brother who has not had so much spent on him. Had there been no widow the younger brother would have gone to live with one of his elder brothers, who would have taken both his share and his younger brother’s share of the property, and paid his younger brother’s marriage price and launched him into the world as his father would have done had he lived.[8] All land inherited from the father would have been held in common, as described above. Debts are inherited just as property is, and many a man inherits nothing else. Where the assets exceed the debts the heirs pay the debts in proportion to their shares of the assets.
Adoption.
Though so common among Changs and Semas, adoption is practically unknown among the Lhotas. One reason is that there are very few people poor enough to be willing to be adopted, and another that while among the Semas and Changs an adopted man and his descendants become practically the serfs of their adopter, among the Lhotas the chances of material gain for the adopter are few. Adoption of a girl seems to be unknown. There are generally relations of some kind ready to bring her up and get her marriage price. But boys are very occasionally adopted. Supposing A adopts B, he becomes to all intents and purposes A’s son, [[100]]and enters A’s clan, though he can never marry a woman from the clan out of which he was adopted. A has to find a wife for B and pay his marriage price, yet if B has a son, the son inherits B’s property, A only inheriting if B has no sons. There is no ceremony of adoption.