Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 78)

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عنوان

Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 78)

المحتوى

Territories (5).
Production on Amiri land was organized around the village or’ the
Hamula. The Hamula is defined by Asad as a group of families "whose
heads were linked to one another by agnatic ties". (Asad,1976:3) Until
the early 20th century, Palestine had about 800 villages. "Typically"
it is maintained, "the Hamula and the village would be co-extensive,
although some villages consisted of a number of small, distinct
nuclear families" (Abdo-Zubi, 1987:6). In some cases a big Hamula
occupied more than one village.(6) Within the Hamula, each individual
family was assigned a piece of land which it cultivated and over which
it assumed full responsibility. At the end of the production
process, land dues, usually a tithe, or 1/10 of the gross annual
product, were paid to the Head of the Hamula. The Head of the Hamula,
customarily the oldest man in the village, was chosen by the
villagers. Every family within the village knew the boundaries of its
land. Except for the periodical redistribution of land, done at
intervals of 3-5 years to take into account demographic changes within
each family (i.e. births or deaths), individual families kept the same
land for many years (Warriner, 1948).
Production relations under the Amiri form of land tenure must not
be confused with the communal or Mushata system. Many authors, in
confusing these two forms, have presented the Hamula as an
egalitarian, undifferentiated unit of production and consumption
(Ohana,1981; Firestone, 1975; Baer,1966; Flapan,1979). In this
literature all Hamula members were seen as equal participants in the
production and distribution process. Yet an examination of the
structure of the Hamula reveals that neither it nor the Palestinian
village in general was ever a_ self-sufficient unit. The Hamula
64
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

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١٩٨٩

المنشئ

Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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Theses رسائل ماجستير ودكتوراه