traditional division

A traditional division is a division whose areas are held under customary law: tribal, clan or communal territory recognized by the community and by its own authorities.

Its boundaries rest on custom and on agreements between neighboring groups rather than on a survey, and a state may recognize them, record them partly, or not at all. Where the state has drawn its own units over the same ground, the two coexist and rarely coincide.

An administrative division is maintained by a government. A traditional area is maintained by the community's own authority, and it remains traditional even where a state has given it legal recognition.