ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the concept of territoriality where space is modeled into territory. It presents the dichotomous tension between tradition and modernity. It provides a conceptualization of territory that equally acknowledges the contours provided by cultural ecology and human behavioral ecology, cultural Marxism, including its discussion of moral economy and its consequences on legal anthropology with the consolidation of legal pluralism as a primary analytical concern. The book discusses contemporary forms of reterritorialization resulting from the interaction between local and large-scale forms of understanding and organizing space. It explores issues of territoriality in postcolonial Africa could certainly offer insight to cases from settler societies in Latin America. It provides a history of common property and smallholdings among Pyrenean pastoralists and cultivators and an ongoing series of interactions with regional and state governments.
