definition
strict definition
traditional division
Territories held under customary law, recognized by those who live under it.
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.
Related definitions
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administrative division
Official named areas a municipality maintains, without a council of their own. -
cadastral division
Land-register areas holding the parcels, usually the pre-merger village boundaries. -
ecclesiastical division
Parishes and church districts, drawn by a religious body for its own congregations. -
electoral division
Constituencies drawn to elect someone to a body above, redrawn as population shifts. -
judicial division
Areas assigning a place to the court competent for it, so a matter is heard in the right one. -
military division
Areas under military authority, such as a garrison, training ground or closed zone. -
natural division
Areas set by the terrain itself, such as a valley, a basin, a range or an island group. -
planning division
Areas a plan or program applies to, lasting only as long as the program does. -
political division
Areas with an elected council or representative of their own, set by the municipality. -
postal division
Delivery areas of a postal operator, cut for routes rather than for places. -
protected division
Conservation areas where what may be done with the land is restricted by law. -
school division
Catchment areas assigning an address to the school it is entitled to attend. -
service division
Supply and response areas of a utility or emergency service, cut by network and driving time. -
statistical division
Areas cut for counting, kept stable over time, often named after the quarter they contain. -
tenure division
Areas a use right runs over, such as a hunting, forestry or fishing ground. -
vernacular division
Names people use for parts of a place, with edges nobody has ever fixed by an authority.