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Mats Kaarbö

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When and why did we start staking out property?

When did it all start and why? Who was the first owner of land and what was the criteria for a person to do so?

Topics: Ancient history cultural evolution education environment evolution society
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  • John Smith 30+

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    Oct 24 2012: "When and why did we start staking out property?"

    Probably around the time tribes start taking up a sedentary, agrarian lifestyle. At first villages owned land communally (but that's ownership nonetheless because it permanently prevented someone from another village to use that land) but eventually land, cattle and women became private property. Permanent ownership of stuff was a natural way for the elites to secure their power, this is still evident today: owning land or durable equipment is much more profitable than leasing/renting it, especially when your ancestors did all the work required to obtain that ownership.
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      Mats Kaarbö 10+

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      Oct 24 2012: "but eventually land, cattle and women became private property. Permanent ownership of stuff was a natural way for the elites to secure their power"

      But why is that? Why was this move a natural way? What was the pivotal cause that made some people want to have more than others, when it seemingly worked fine sharing land in tribes or communities?

      • John Smith 30+

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        Oct 24 2012: Religion, winning the affection of a high maintenance woman or just plain old greed. I'm sure every chief and priest had their own motive but we do know that it happened in both the old and the new world before these two came in contact.

        @below

        Religion can drive people to not want to share things with "unbelievers". It also drives the transition from a tribe having territory to hunt on to a village owning land communally.
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          Mats Kaarbö 10+

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          Oct 25 2012: In which religion is there written about staking out your own property? And to what purpose was this action?

      • Scott Koenraadt

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        Oct 25 2012: I think some of it may be due to human nature, among populations there are hard working, and lazy people. I think one day that the hard working where tired of doing all the work and having to share with those that did not do as much, so they decided to partision the land and allow the lazy to suffer from their ways, while they did well with their hardwork.

        • John Smith 30+

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          Oct 25 2012: No, before land was owned by individuals it was communally managed: you had to defend your right to a piece of land by making use of it, like a permit, if you were lazy the community either passed that right to someone else or wouldn't let you share in the harvest.

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