Introduction

This chapter aims to investigate the historical origin, emergence and present reproduction of the communal, or more specifically, semi-communal land ownership, of the Norte Chico region in Chile. This will be through a case study of the agricultural community Canela Baja and its colonial predecessor, the estancia La Canela in the commune with the same name, in the province of Choapa. Communal land ownership is not just a form of owning the land, but also a way to produce and reproduce the peasantry. Thus, ownership itself is always attached to social subjects, constituting, as a form of agricultural social production, a socio-economic organisation or institution. An agricultural community is, in this way, an institution organised under the form of communal or semi-communal land ownership, whose multiple members are landowners. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.