<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The article challenges the assumption that land tenure is contingent on acquiring a land title. It argues that for Indigenous peoples a land may be delineated, occupied, utilised, and collectively owned through the concept of territoriality. Through a combined ‘anarchist anthropology’ and political ecology the article provides ethnographic evidence from among the Tau-Buhid as a case in point to show that through their everyday relationship with fire and ignition practices territoriality is reinforced among their communities as a basis of land tenure. Thus, despite efforts of the Philippine state to phase out all kinds of fire practice on their land, a portion of which is a declared protected area, ignition continues as a way of orchestrating territorial autonomy against state sovereignty in the highlands. Ultimately, through such practices Indigenous lands have metaphorically transformed into ‘territories of fire’, a frontier where the state is irrelevant to Indigenous life and where state-control apparatuses are inoperable.</p>
</abstract>

The article challenges the assumption that land tenure is contingent on acquiring a land title. It argues that for Indigenous peoples a land may be delineated, occupied, utilised, and collectively owned through the concept of territoriality. Through a combined ‘anarchist anthropology’ and political ecology the article provides ethnographic evidence from among the Tau-Buhid as a case in point to show that through their everyday relationship with fire and ignition practices territoriality is reinforced among their communities as a basis of land tenure. Thus, despite efforts of the Philippine state to phase out all kinds of fire practice on their land, a portion of which is a declared protected area, ignition continues as a way of orchestrating territorial autonomy against state sovereignty in the highlands. Ultimately, through such practices Indigenous lands have metaphorically transformed into ‘territories of fire’, a frontier where the state is irrelevant to Indigenous life and where state-control apparatuses are inoperable.

Territories of Fire : Indigenous Communities, Land, and Anarchy Among a Highland People in Mindoro

Assistant Professor Department of Human and Family Development Studies, College of Human Ecology

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The article challenges the assumption that land tenure is contingent on acquiring a land title. It argues that for Indigenous peoples a land may be delineated,...

Territories of Fire : Indigenous Communities, Land, and Anarchy Among a Highland People in Mindoro

Published Online: Dec 16, 2022

Page range: 239 - 272

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2022-0021

Keywords
anarchy, fire, political ecology, swidden, Tau-Buhid, territory

© 2022 Christian A. Rosales, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Territories of Fire : Indigenous Communities, Land, and Anarchy Among a Highland People in Mindoro

Published Online: Dec 16, 2022

Page range: 239 - 272

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2022-0021

Keywordsanarchy, fire, political ecology, swidden, Tau-Buhid, territory

© 2022 Christian A. Rosales, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
anarchy, fire, political ecology, swidden, Tau-Buhid, territory