Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

birta: Nepalese tax-free land tenure granted by the government primarily as a pension or as a reward to political supporters and family members, important especially during the Rana period; abolished 1959.; Source: Library of Congress
ejido: A landholding peasant community or the land owned collectively by the members of such a community. An ejido, according to Mexican legislation, is a legal entity of the ""social interest sector,"" and its jurisdiction is in the hands of Mexican-born peasants. Its holdings consist of the ejidal plots, i.e., individual farming plots, the school plots, the ejidal urban zones, the houses and annexes to each plot, and any water resources and forest areas associated with the community. Two basic kinds of ejidos exist: the ""individual"" ejido, in which land tenure and ownership are legally vested in a community but cropland is allocated by plots (parcelas) on a semipermanent basis among the individual ejidatarios (ejido members); and the ""collective"" ejido, in which land resources are pooled for collectively organized production. A majority of ejidos are of the individual kind.
gult: A principle of land tenure among the Amhara, Tigray, and, with modifications, elsewhere. Abolished by the military government in 1975. Gult rights were rights granted by the emperor or his designated representative either to members of the ruling group as a reward for service or to Ethiopian Orthodox churches or monasteries as endowments. The holder of gult rights, often but not always an official, was entitled to collect tribute and demand labor from those on the land over which he held rights. Some of the tribute was kept, and the remainder was passed upward.
jagir: A type of land tenure in Nepal granted primarily to military personnel, allowing them tax-free access to produce from the land in return for military service. This tenure was a basic feature of military service in northern India and in Nepal during late medieval times, and disappeared in Nepal only in the twentieth century.
rist: A principle of land tenure among the Amhara and, with some variations, among the Tigray. Rist rights are land-use rights that any Amhara or Tigray, peasant or noble, can claim by virtue of descent through males and females from the original holder of such rights. Claims must be recognized by the cognatic descent group (q.v.). Once held, such rights cannot be withdrawn except in favor of one who presumably holds a better claim or, in extreme cases, by the emperor.