The Theory Of Property :: essays research papers

The Theory of Property     While Websters New Collegiate Dictionary defines blank space as "somethingregarded as be possessed by, or at the governing body of, a person or group ofpersons species or class," (p. 1078) this definition simply holds theconnotations so emphatically discussed by the anthropologist Morgan. To Morgan,"property has been so immense...so diversified its uses so expanding...that ithas become...an unmanageable power." (p.561) Why has it become such anunmanageable power? Morgan answers this mind with the simple answer that itis due to the linear evolution of the social basis of property from beingcollectively possess to being individually owned which has planted the seed of itsown destruction in modern society. Morgan, in an attempt to study the roleproperty has played in moldable social structures throughout history, hasconcluded that the influences property has had on reshaping societies and viceversa hatful teach the historian galore(postnominal) things about both the society being studiedand the environment in which it strove to survive. To Morgan, the "germ" of theinstitution of property easy infected many different societies in manydifferent split of the world. His teleological approach states that due to the"unity of mankind" diverse technical innovations, which gave rise to theever- change by reversaling availability of property, allowed social change to occur in many areas of the globe independently. Every area, went through its own version ofevolution in which the importance of wealth grew at varying rates. Thisdiscovery leads Morgan to believe that mend the past was unified in itsvariation, it is the future which must presently be addressed. For Morgan, instudying the past one can learn a great deal about the future. Not only does Morgananalyze the social emergence of various types of property, but he is alsoextremely interested in the valet de chambre tendencies evident in various societies whichsurfaced as a result of the ever-growing number of ownable objects. As timeprogressed from the Status of Savagery through Barbarism and into refiningnew wants and needs arose mostly due to new inventions. It is on this kinship between property, technology, and the mankind desire for more of eachwhich Morgan centers his work, and it is from this study which he hopes futuregenerations will learn how to improve their institutions until they can be improve no more.     Morgan structures his essay around three basic "ethnical periods ofhuman progress" (p. 535) and the basic assumption that the more modes ofproduction and subsistence there are the greater the proliferation of individualobjects of ownership. As technology advances and discoveries are made, theamount of ownable objects grow as does the need to own.