Property and violence
 

Graeber / Wengrow 363: "Land is only really 'yours,' [...] if no one would think to challenge your claim over it, or if you have the capacity to summon at will people with weapons to threaten or attack anyone who disagrees, or just enters without permission and refuses to leave."
 
"In other words, 'landed property' is not actual soil, rocks or grass. Is is a legal understanding, maintained by a subtle mix of morality and the threat of violence."
 
It mimicks Ihering's analysis of "the state's monopoly of violence within a territory--just within a much smaller territory than a nation state"

> from David Graeber and David Wengrow's Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021)

> tagged with #violence, #property

> created July 15, 2025 at 2:57:05 PM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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