House lot tenure in Barranco, Southern Belize. Opening the family chest

Résumé 0

Records in private collections of rural dwellers are a significant source of information that remains untapped for ethnohistoric reconstruction. This study uses a little more than a hundred items, mainly house lot rental receipts. It starts by describing how the author was able to access the documents and overcome challenges in extracting the data. It follows with the contribution of the data to understanding house lot tenure in terms of the payment practices by villagers and the system of public lands administration; the overlap among kinship, lot tenure, and residence; and some anecdotes on the village community as part of the larger colonial society of 20th century Belize. In its analysis the paper shows that the Garifuna people are an ideal group for the study of lot tenure, having been formed through violent struggles for their lands in St. Vincent and their recurring forced movements by authorities within their communities in Central America. Finally, the data points to the critical role of women in assuming possession of house lots through de facto residence and exercising headship over household members.