"The book is in many ways the product of wonderfully stimulating weekly discussions and papers at the Oxford Legalism seminar, now in its ninth year ... In January 2016, a workshop on the specific theme of 'property and ownership' was organized"--Page v. Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-294) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: People as property in medieval Dubrovnik / Hannah Skoda. Cows and the shariah in the Abeche Customary Court (Eastern Chad) / Judith Scheele -- Property in land in Roman provinces / Georgy Kantor -- Property and possession in medieval Celtic societies / T.M. Charles-Edwards -- The afterlife of property : affect, time, value / Matthew S. Erie -- Jurisdiction as property in England, 900-1100 / Tom Lambert -- 'Everything belongs to God' : Sayyid Qutb's theory of property and social justice / Walter Rech -- A sea of profit : making property in the Western Indian Ocean / Jatin Dua -- Fish as property on the Small Aral Sea, Kazakhstan / William Wheeler -- People as property in medieval Dubrovnik / Hannah Skoda.
Summary:
"In this fourth volume of the Legalism series, ownership is defined as the simple fact of being able to describe something as 'mine' or 'yours', and property is distinguished as the discursive field which allows the articulation of attendant rights, relationships, and obligations. Property is often articulated through legalism as a way of thinking that appeals to rules and to generalizing concepts as a way of understanding, responding to, and managing the world around one. An Aristotelian perspective suggests that ownership is the natural state of things and a prerequisite of a true sense of self. An alternative perspective from legal theory puts law at the heart of the origins of property. However, both these points of view are problematic in a wider context, the latter because it rests heavily on Roman law. Anthropological and historical studies enable us to interrogate these assumptions. The articles here, ranging from Roman provinces to modern-day piracy in Somalia, address questions such as: How are legal property regimes intertwined with economic, moral-ethical, and political prerogatives? How far do the assumptions of the western philosophical tradition explain property and ownership in other societies? Is the 'bundle of rights' a useful way to think about property? How does legalism negotiate property relationships and interests between communities and individuals? How does the legalism of property respond to the temporalities and materialities of the objects owned? How are property regimes managed by states, and what kinds of conflicts are thus generated?"--Jacket flap.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.