re: On property rights, continued from Geek Speak.
'm not sure how much of this is romanticized projection, and how much is actual history. Ownership of land is as old as human agriculture, through many different cultures.
I'm working from what is currently traditional among the different peoples I associate with. As for whether it is romanticized? Hard to say for certain Tom.
So much was lost during the early 20Th century. With the Federal Government's work throught the BIA's effort to "civilize" the 'poor ignorant savages' a great deal of the traditions got beaten out of recent generations in the infamous "Indian Boarding Schools".
The effect varied widely from one group to the next. Some, especially the eastern associations and tribes that had been moved to Oklahoma, were affected more than the Plains and Western groups.
A few, very few, managed to hold on to their culture in toto through a supreme effort and not a few sacrifices.
I might agree that the rise of a certain type of 'property rights' might have arisen with a shift from nomadic to stationary agricultural societies.
But even the eastern and midwestern groups that had begun that social shift still viewed land as something borrowed from future generations. Not as a 'possession'.