Questionable claims to possession

Affinity, Diaspora, Identity, Reunification, Return (Part #4)

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Tangible property: Recognition of any right to ownership may depend to some degree on whether the property is inhabited, embodied or exploited in some way -- as with the case of "second residences". This recognition is partially challenged by squatters and trespassers who may claim a form of ownership of uninhabited property -- if only with respect to others of similar status. Issues become apparent when "travellers" (including gypsies) appropriate unoccupied (common) land.

Also of particular relevance to this argument is the manner whereby the independence of an area of land may be declared and claimed -- irrespective of conventional understanding of sovereignty of that land. An example is offered by micronations, also known as model countries and new country projects. These are entities that claim to be independent nations or states but which are not recognized by world governments or major international organizations. The "independence" may be recognized to a degree -- or tolerated -- by the sovereign realm in which they are embedded, possibly for historical or traditional reasons, or where no other administrative concerns arise. The sovereign realm may then restrict its preoccupation to "foreign relations".

Of particular interest is the manner in which England was "claimed" on behalf of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia by Burnum Burnum -- with the planting of the Aboriginal flag on the white cliffs of Dover on the Australian Bicentenary Day of 26 January 1988.

Whether or not boundaries are implied, considerable significance may be attached to any "spehere of influence". This may apply at the neighbourhood level in the case of street gangs, or at the continental level as with interpretations of Manifest Destiny (and the Monroe Doctrine), the German understanding of Lebensraum, the Italian equivalent (Spazio vitale), or the Japanese analogues (Hakko ichiu, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere). Spheres of influence may be claimed by organized crime families and recognized between them.

Other unusal forms of "possession" are evident through a process of "adoption": adopt a highway, adopt a village, adopt a river, or some other natural resource -- as a means of ensuring its protection. Indigenous peoples may recognize individuals with some form of symbolic or ritual responsibility for particular features of the environment.

Of striking significance are those instances in which the land, or some feature of it, may be understood as the traditional realm of nature spirits of some kind, whose possession of it is variously respected and vigorously defended by indigenous peoples (Darrell A. Posey, Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, 1999). Any misappropriation of it is then held to be potentially dangerous.

Possession of identity: The possession of identity is the focus of a complex dynamic, variously interweaving the following:

• the identity accorded by naming, initially by parents, then by wider circles, including peers, possibly through nicknames. The process of land nam is relevant (as noted above)
• the identity attributed through official processes of registration of birth and the like
• the identity reinforced by physical attributes, includuing gender and sexual orientation
• the identity acquired through prowess in education, employment and other activities (sport, etc), and its recognition by peers
• the identity associated with symbols of wealth and status, including housing and clothing
• the identity associated with membership of a community, ethnic group, religion
• the identity associated with practice of a language and cultiavation of an ideology
• the personal sense of identity, irrespective of that attributed by others, although qualified and reinforced by it

The sense of identity, and of how it is "possessed", may be given focus when its expression is prohibited in some way, whether with respect to use of mother tongue, expression of sexual orientation, or other processes of forceful assimilation into other cultures. It may be further formed through ways in which it may be experienced as violated, including identity theft.

Possession of a "qualification": People and groups may be recognized as possessing a quality of some kind. These may include:

• possession of an attribute (looks, intelligence, charisma, etc)
• possession of a talent or skill, possibly recognized in the form of experience
• possession of a certification of prowess, whether academic, skill-related, employment-related, and including any criminal record
• possession of an objective, goal, or aim
• possession of a principle, value or ethical/moral code
• possession of knowledge, energy, information, resources

Such possession may be unrelated to any expression in practice. The possession of knowledge can be explored through the widespread use of the metaphor that understanding is grasping, as discussed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Philosophy in the Flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought, 1999, p. 125, 375): When the mind metaphorically grasps the form (the physical structure) of the object perceived, it understands (via the metaphor Understanding Is Grasping). The problematic implications are discussed below in relation to identity and unification.

Extraordinary possession of intangibles: Irrespective of formal recognition as intellectual or cultural property, a wide range of intangibles may be subject to a degree of possession (as evocative of memories and emotions) through their qualification by "my":

• people: my spouse, my children, my lover, my friend, my servant, my master, my leader
• groups: my team, my association
• obligations: my job, my duty, my responsibility
• objects: my car, my weapon, my clothes
• processes: my technique, my recipe
• place: my town, my neighbourhood, my pub -- even my seat therein (Stammtisch)
• aesthetic expression: my song, my tune, my poem
• understanding/commitment: my opinion, my idea, my interest, my enthusiasm, my mission, my career
• aspiration: my hope, my love, my sense of destiny
• audience: my followers, my supporters
• images: as with images of celebrities, or of the New York skyline

The nature of such possession may be variously challenged, most notably in the case of people -- where this may be perceived and experienced as implying an unwelcome degree of objectification, as in sexual objectification. The case of men framing their relation to their partners as possession of an object (notably a "trophy wife") is a continuing theme of concern. As object sexuality, the process may be evident without being focused on another person. Possession of territory may be challenged by understandings of environmental stewardship of the Earth.

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