The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory (Screening Antiquity)

This book examines the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day to debunk three widely accepted false beliefs about the private property system: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that there is something “natural” about the private property system. That is, the normative principles of appropriation and voluntary transfer applied in the world in which we live support a capitalist system with strong, individualist, and unequal private property rights. The book reviews the intellectual history of these claims and demonstrates their importance in contemporary political thought before reviewing the history and prehistory of the private property system to address their veracity. In so doing, the book uses thorough anthropological and historical evidence to refute these three claims. The book shows that societies with common-property systems maintaining strong equality and extensive freedom were initially nearly ubiquitous around the world, that their claims to common ownership were consistent with appropriation-based theories, and that the private property rights system was established through a long series of violent state-sponsored aggressions. CONTENTS 6 Preface 8 Acknowledgments 11 1. Introduction 12 Part One The inequality hypothesis 24 2. Hierarchy’s Apologists, Part One 26 3. Hierarchy’s Apologists, Part Two 53 4. How Small-Scale Societies Maintain Political, Social, and Economic Equality 66 Part Two The market freedom hypothesis 88 5. The Negative Freedom Argument for the Market Economy 90 6. The Negative Freedom Argument for the Hunter-Gatherer Band Economy 111 Part Three The individual appropriation hypothesis 136 7. Contemporary Property Theory 138 8. The History of an Hypothesis 158 9. The Impossibility of a Purely A Priori Justifi cation of Private Property 173 10. Evidence Provided by Propertarians to Support the Appropriation Hypothesis 189 11. Property Systems in Hunter-Gatherer Societies 205 12. Property Systems in Stateless Farming Communities 220 13. Property Systems in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern States 238 14. The Privatization of the Earth, 1500–2000 ce 251 15. The Individual Appropriation Hypothesis Assessed 269 16. Conclusion 280 References 285 Index 306 Examining the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day This book debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that the normative principles of appropriation and voluntary transfer applied in the world in which we live support a capitalist system with strong, individualist and unequal private property rights. The authors review the history of the use and importance of these claims in philosophy, and use thorough anthropological and historical evidence to refute them. They show that societies with common-property systems maintaining strong equality and extensive freedom were initially nearly ubiquitous around the world, and that the private property rights system was established through a long series of violent state-sponsored aggressions. This book debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property systems: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that the normative principles of appropriation and voluntary transfer applied in the world in which we live support a capitalist system with strong, individualist and unequal private property rights. The authors review the history of the use and importance of these claims in philosophy, and use thorough anthropological and historical evidence to refute them. They show that societies with common-property systems maintaining strong equality and extensive freedom were initially nearly ubiquitous around the world, and that the private property rights system was established through a long series of violent state-sponsored aggressions This title debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property systems: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that the normative principles of appropriation and voluntary transfer applied in the world in which we live support a capitalist system with strong, individualist and unequal private property rights. The authors review the history of the use and importance of these claims in philosophy, and use thorough anthropological and historical evidence to refute them