Common “terroirs” and agrarian dynamics: a comparative analysis of the recent agrarian history of Burkina Faso, Ecuador and India

Abstract

This article aims to rehabilitate the “old” concepts of French rural geography, namely “finages” and “terroirs”. Although quite old, they are not obsolete and are still useful for understanding the place of common lands in contemporary agrarian dynamics. By their technical and socio-economic dimension, they help to go beyond the simple opposition between collective and private land rights. These concepts have been used during field researches carried out over the past twenty years in various contexts: south-west Burkina Faso, north of the Ecuadorian Andes and west and south India. Despite their specificities, these regions have at least one common feature. At some point during recent history their agricultural territories have combined common lands (saltus and silva) and private lands (ager). The analysis of these tropical situations provides new elements on the origin and the disappearance of common lands. Above all, this comparative research invites to rethink the role of common lands in agrarian dynamics. They were not just complements, but have proven to be essential for the advent of “private” lands. Far from the redistributive role often attributed to them, they were at the heart of social processes of domination, differentiation and exclusion. Since the green revolution, they have become refuge areas for those excluded from intensification or ecological reserves where all agricultural activity is prohibited.