Indigenous Taboo Violation and Collective Compensation Claims in Bemba Village Tribunals: A Factorial Survey Experiment on Harm Attribution and Restitution Awards

Bemba village tribunals in Zambia adjudicate claims that a taboo violation has harmed a whole kin group, yet the criteria by which adjudicators attribute collective harm and set restitution remain undocumented. Adjudicators attributed significantly more collective harm when the violation involved ancestral land or burial grounds than when it involved dietary or sexual prohibitions, and restitution awards rose with the number of households claimed as affected. Prior warning amplified awards only for violations framed as repeat offences. The results support a model of Bemba compensation reasoning in which harm is attributed to the violation's threat to lineage continuity rather than to its material consequences, and in which restitution functions as lineage repair rather than individual indemnity.