Divers Paths to Justice - English - Forest Peoples Programme

Divers Paths to Justice: Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples inSoutheast Asiatrade 16 and not the control of land per se, discrete bodies of customary lawoperated, in which one body of law regulated trade, slavery and the patronclientrelations through which trade was controlled, while a separate body ofcommunity-controlled law related to village affairs, land and naturalresources. 17That there were (and are) multiple layers of customary law in the societiesof Southeast Asia is also clear from the wider literature. Changing currentsof belief and varied forms of governance mean that customary lawsprimarily based on subsistence-oriented livelihoods have been overlain withcustomary laws related to trade and to wider polities and in turn overlaidwith customary laws derived from ‘world’ religious systems and codes.None of these layers of law are impervious to the operations of the otherlayers and studies show how remarkably fast customary laws and tenurialsystems can evolve in response to migration, market forces and theimpositions of the State. 18Social scientists have been slow to understand that indigenous peoples areneither struggling to reproduce frozen traditions of their essentialisedcultures nor just responding to the racialised violence of the colonial andpost-colonial frontier. Rather they are seeking to re-imagine and redefinetheir societies based on their own norms, priorities and aspirations. 19 Inthese processes of revitalisation, and negotiation with the State andneighbouring communities, peoples’ very identities will be reforged. 20 It issuch processes of self-determination which this project seeks to inform.Custom and colonialismDuring the 18 th , 19 th and early 20 th centuries it was the case that throughoutthe region the colonial powers that came in and sought to take control of16 Sellato 2001; 2002; Magenda 201017 Reid 1995; Warren 1981; Druce 201018 McCarthy 200619 Austin-Broos 2009:1220 Jonsson 2002; Harrell 200123