Property possession and ownership

Affinity, Diaspora, Identity, Reunification, Return (Part #3)

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It could be argued that the relationship to property, whether tangible or virtual, is quite extraordinary and fundamentally questionable. With respect to land, "possession" is ensured by legal proof of ownership, typically guaranteed and authenticated by adminstrative authorities. Ownership in perpetuity may have been accorded in periods past by a sovereign power. The principle is extended to other tangibles: buildings, animals, objects, etc -- goods and chattels. It is further extended with respect to certain rights associated with such property: access rights, water rights, hunting rights, fishing rights, etc. Of special interest is the extension even further to include mineral rights, typically below the surface, and possibly irrespective of the ownership of the land surface.

This sense of ownership and possession may of course conflict with that of traditional claimants to the land as framed by other concepts of legitimacy. As a result of colonial appropriation of the land -- "in the name of the crown" -- this has given rise to considerable conflict, irrespective of treaties designed to resolve the issues. Such conflict, and associated resentment, continues to this day -- with often vigorous protest by those whose ancestors first inhabited the lands in question, typically with a quite different sense of ownership (if any).

Terra nullius? The debate may centre on the legal assumptions of Terra Nullius. This continues to be of relevance with respect to Arctic territories, the sea bed, and potentially to sub-surface regions. It necessarily applies to the Moon, to asteroids and to other planets. Of relevance to this argument is the manner in which land on planets or the Moon is currently offered for sale by promoters who provide titles to extraterrestrial real estate. People may then claim to own that land -- irrespective of whether there is any authoritative recognition of that claim. The question of exclusive ownership of occupied bases on such bodies by government or commercial enterprises raises issues which remain to be resolved.

Intellectual and cultural property: The principle of property ownership has been further extended to intellectual property, namely of intangible property -- whether or not it can take tangible form (books, software, images, web domains, etc). A variant includes the right to property in cyberspace, most notably in virtual worlds.

Another variant is that of cultural property, including symbols and ritual artefacts. The process of naming is of course a subtle means of establishing a claim to a degree of possession of an identity associated with a distant form. Clearly every identity is potentially free to name the features visible from its own worldview, without subscribing to those attributed by others. The naming of stars through the International Astronomical Union offers another example (Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites, September 2013).

This recalls the psychosocial appropriation of a space at the collective level described by the process of land nam, coined by Ananda Coomaraswamy (The Rg Veda as Land-Nama Bok, 1935), to refer to the Icelandic tradition of claiming ownership of uninhabited spaces through weaving together a metaphor of geography of place into a unique mythic story. This territorial appropriation process, notably practiced by the Navaho and the Vedic Aryans, was further described by Joseph Campbell (The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: metaphor as myth and religion, 2002):

Land nam ("land claiming or taking") was [the Norse] technical term for this way of sanctifying a region, converting it thereby into an at once psychologically and metaphysical Holy Land.... Land nam, mythologization, has been the universally practiced method to bring this intelligible kingdom to view in the mind's eye. The Promised Land, therefore, is any landscape recognized as mythologically transparent, and the method of acquisition of such territory is not by prosaic physical action, but poetically, by intelligence and the method of art; so that the human being should be dwelling in the two worlds simultaneously of the illuminated moon and the illuminating sun.

A more recent variant includes imaginary countries, invented through stories, or in whose existence people believe in without proof. Such "countries" may be notably distinguished by culture, elaborate mythology, and the cultivation of an artificial language (Alberto Manguel, The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, 2000). A striking example is the Imaginary Society (or Société Imaginaire), founded in 1984 and sustained by the initiative of the Batuz Foundation as a grouping over 500 artists, writers and scholars from around the world. Fantasy worlds may be elaborated in a fictional universe, as used in the novels and interactive games of fantasy fiction. Such worlds typically involve magical abilities, possibly with a medieval or futuristic theme. When created through a process called world building, they are known as a constructed world. These elaborate and make self-consistent the setting -- within which many may participate through online gaming, effectively forming a diaspora. Such entities raise fundamental questions as to the nature of their "existence".

The various understandings of Shambhala offer a well-known example of mythical cities and "lost cities" -- part of a larger class including others of legendary and symbolic significance, engendering pilgrimage (Jerusalem, Mecca, Varanasi, etc). Their nature may encourage the design of ideal cities to embody in material form an understanding of symbolic unification, possibly focused on buildings of particular form (Matrimandir of Auroville, Damanhur, Goetheanum, Arcosanti, etc).

These subtle understandings are extended in curious ways to belief systems, most notably religions and ideologies as a form of property in the noosphere -- perhaps to be termed "nooproperty", now that noopolitik has become a recognized concern. There may be an implication that a discipline or practice is effectively the property of its practioners -- accredited or licensed by authorities they recognize, following appropriate training and qualification. Innovations may need to be recognized through registered patents.

More curious is the manner in which theories may be named by an articulator thereof: Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, and the like. This form of possession may be questionable, even controversial, if the same discovery has been made independently by another. Great importance is then attached to priority in time, although precedence is curiously decided in terms of timing of "publication".

The process of publication in an accredited journal, possibly in an international language, is then strangely reminiscent of the manner in which authorities arrogate to themselves the right to recognize ownership of tangible property. Such issues raise the question of possession and ownership in future instances of "rediscovery of the wheel" by those who are not aware that it had already been "discovered" -- somewhere or somewhen.

Controversy may arise, possibly to be expressed in the form of "that is my idea" or "I thought of that first". Less evident, but fundamental in practice, is possession of an idea, a plan of action, a project, or a sense of identity -- irrespective of whether it is articulated in some medium.

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