Territoriality
Discussion
From Polyarchy.org, Gian Piero de Bellis:
"It seems that prehistoric human beings moved from place to place in search of food (plants, animals). It was only at a later stage that the cultivation of plants and the raising of animals were discovered and practised by a growing number of people.
These new techniques of food production transformed, in many cases, what were non-territorial migratory hunters or groups of hunters into settled territorial farmers or communities of farmers.
The development of territoriality was the logical and rational outcome of the continual reliance on the same specific territory for all or most of the necessities of life, both material and psychological.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives, among others, these two definitions of territoriality:
“2a: persistent attachment to a specific territory
2b: the pattern of behavior associated with the defense of a territory.”
Territoriality can then be seen as an historical outcome of the protracted use and care of a specific territory that generates a sense of belongingness and a will to defend it from intruders.
The fact that territoriality was alien to the prehistoric human being means that:
- Territoriality is not part of the genetic endowment of the individual but is a quite sensible attitude that emerges once specific agricultural practices are put in place;
- Territoriality is an attitude learned and displayed only in the presence of those practices (farming, breeding) that are based on the continuous use of a certain territory.
That territoriality is not a universal human instinct but a learned attitude in response to specific situations is very apparent if we take into account the historical reality of millions of people that migrated from one place to another, or the existence of nomadic populations and individuals with no fixed abode (see the exemplary case of the mathematician Paul Erdös).
For stationary people, territoriality is a quite appropriate way of dealing with problems of ownership and management of territories. Unfortunately, by exercising irrational passions and developing absurd pretensions, some power-hungry individuals have developed a pathological urge to tamper with the concept of territoriality that has resulted in the development of what is known as territorialism, a conviction accepted nowadays by most people without giving it much thought."