The brand

Abstract

The brand must be understood as an association of villages that brought together peasants (but not exclusively4) holders of plots of land in which the form of appropriation cannot be described in a simple and concise way as in the expression full ownership or even in the expression communal property. The term brand (originally, sign, border or territory surrounded by a border) and the term companions of the brand were applied, respectively, to vacant lands and the association that owned them, under ownership or usufruct. Peasants who were part of village and neighborhood associations had the right to use vacant land; sometimes they even owned them. Given the characteristics of the rural economy at the time, the use of forests and pasture land was of capital importance.