Reply #19: It's not European... [View All]

Europeans held different ideas about land ownership than hunter-gatherer tribes they met in the New World, but that has been the case between settled civilizations and hunter-gatherers since the dawn of civilization. The idea of land ownership was not created by Europeans nor is uniquely European. Even hunter-gatherer societies had notions of land tenure, but not the formal ideas of land ownership that Europe had at that time. Among the native American Empires, though, land ownership was practiced, which makes sense, considering the heirarchical structure and permanent settlements of such societies.

To make it seem like it is a European vs native American idea is just not true. It's more like settled civilization vs. migratory hunter-gatherers.