The Theory Of Property

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Term Paper Title	The Theory Of Property
# of Words	2615
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	10.46

The Theory of Property

The Theory of Property

     While Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines property as "something
regarded as being possessed by, or at the disposal of, a person or group of
persons species or class,"  (p. 1078) this definition hardly holds the
connotations so emphatically discussed by the anthropologist Morgan.  To Morgan,
"property has been so immense...so diversified its uses so expanding...that it
has become...an unmanageable power."  (p.561)  Why has it become such an
unmanageable power?  Morgan answers this question with the simple answer that it
is due to the linear evolution of the social institution of property from being
collectively owned to being individually owned which has planted the seed of its
own destruction in modern society.  Morgan, in an attempt to study the role
property has played in shaping social structures throughout history, has
concluded that the influences property has had on reshaping societies and vice
versa can teach the historian many things about both the society being studied
and the environment in which it strove to survive.  To Morgan, the "germ" of the
institution of property slowly infected many different societies in many
different parts of the world.  His teleological approach states that due to the
"unity of mankind" various technological innovations, which gave rise to the
ever-growing availability of property, allowed social change to occur in many
areas of the globe independently.  Every area,  went through its own version of
evolution in which the importance of wealth grew at varying rates.  This
discovery leads Morgan to believe that while the past was unified in its
variation, it is the future which must presently be addressed.  For Morgan, in
studying the past one can learn much about the future.  Not only does Morgan
analyze the social emergence of various types of property, but he is also
extremely interested in the human tendencies evident in various societies which
surfaced as a result of the ever-growing list of ownable objects.  As time
progressed from the Status of Savagery through Barbarism and into Civilization
new wants and needs arose mostly due to new inventions.  It is on this
relationship between property, technology, and the human desire for more of each
which Morgan centers his work, and it is from this study which he hopes future
generations will learn how to improve their institutions until they can be
improved no more.
     Morgan structures his essay around three bas...

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