ABSTRACT
ASA source of information relative to the distribution of land-ownership among the villagers, the government land survey made in 1933 would seem to be dependable. The owners of all land were registered by this survey, which was intended to be used as a basis for taxation. An examination of the records, however, immediately revealed a number of difficulties. The first of these stems from the fact that the unit for the survey was the village, so that the lands within the administrative boundaries of each village are recorded in a single book. The name of an individual who owns land in different villages will appear in as many different books, while, on the other hand, a single book will include the names of owners from various other villages. Since the information desired for this study was a description of the land owned by the inhabitants of Luts’un, it was necessary to pore through the registry books for all the villages in the surrounding area. To miss some of the names proved exceedingly easy.
