[2][3] In form, it is similar to many other rural agricultural peoples' form of landholding,[4] such as that of pre-Spanish Bolivia[5] and the Puebloan peoples now in the Southwestern United States,[6] identified by Karl Marx as the dualism of rural communities: the existence of collective land ownership together with private production on the land.
Some scholars argue that the term gaunkari is derived from the name for those who compose it, that is the gaunkar; i.e. those who make (kar) the gaun or village.
The former are the members of the village, the latter were entitled to zonn, or jono, which is a dividend paid by the comunidade to gaunkars and accionistas, the holders of acções (sing.
Over time and subject to conflicting land ownership and administration systems, the old institutions lost their original characteristics and comunidades are now mere societies of rights-holders who are members by birth.
[13] In the populous and well-developed central coastal parts of the state, almost all the land that once belonged to the comunidades has been allotted to tenants or taken over for industrial purpose by the government.