Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/244

 232 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

From all these facts and institutions relative to their life there result, among these different peoples who have not yet what we call social and political theories, some beliefs, more or less co-ordinated, which are nevertheless the embryo of the theories that we meet in the most advanced states. Thus, the Murras do not comprehend, according to von Martins, that land can belong to an individual. It would follow that this conception of the economic order from the territorial point of view reflects exactly a condition that does not rest upon the existence of territorial limits of the individual or even of the family. There would be only a general and common frontier, as there was only a general and common property. The Murras never permitted a member of a neighboring tribe to settle upon their territory, unless detained there by force. On the other hand, as they were not closely bound to the land they occupied, and as their kind of property did not necessarily imply fixity of tenure of the soil or specific hereditary transmission, their ideas and customs con- formed to that economic regime; they quitted their dwellings sometimes without appreciable motives in order to settle in another locality. Defense of the territory they occupied was not for them of capital importance, and in the conditions in which they found themselves their habitual migration was advantageous for the preservation of both the group and the individuals.

In general, hunting populations are the most accentuated types of the communal forms of property, in so far as property is reserved by the tribe. Among them the idea of property possessed by the tribe generally arises from the necessity of marking off the part of the forest which is indispensable to it as a territory reserved for the chase. If some well-cultivated clearings, in a territory of very limited extent, are sufficient for the maintenance of a numerous population, it is not the same for peoples whose game forms almost the sole alimentary source. Sometimes the territory reserved for this purpose extends beyond the areas actually occupied by the tribe. This reserved territory is neces- sary for the normal development of the group, but it is also that which is exposed to invasions.

Very often the hunting territory of the tribe is naturally