WOULDNT YOU LIKE TO HAVE ALL OF YOUR LAND IN ONE PLACE - LAND FRAGMENTATION IN NORTHWEST PORTUGAL

This article addresses the land fragmentation debate, centering on the question of whether it is an ecological adaptation or an example of anachronistic, if not irrational and uneconomic, peasant behavior. Building on the ecological argument with case studies of inheritance and a quantitative analysis of farm production and land fragmentation in Portugal, two major assumptions about land fragmentation are refuted: (a) that it is extremely detrimental to farm production and (b) that its main cause is inheritance divisions. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.