For the linguistic term, see Inalienable possession.
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Inalienable possessions (or immovable property) are things such as land or objects that are symbolically identified with the groups that own them and so cannot be permanently severed from them. Landed estates in the Middle Ages, for example, had to remain intact and even if sold, they could be reclaimed by blood kin. As a legal classification, inalienable possessions date back to Roman times. According to Barbara Mills, "Inalienable possessions are objects made to be kept (not exchanged), have symbolic and economic power that cannot be transferred, and are often used to authenticate the ritual authority of corporate groups".[1]
Marcel Mauss first described inalienable possessions in The Gift, discussing potlatches, a kind of gift-giving feast held in communities of many indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest:
It is even incorrect to speak in these cases of transfer. They are loans rather than sales or true abandonment of possessions. Among the Kwakiutl a certain number of objects, although they appear at the potlatch, cannot be disposed of. In reality these pieces of "property" are sacra that a family divests itself of only with great reluctance and sometimes never.[2]
Annette Weiner broadened the application of the category of property outside the European context with her book Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving, focussing on a range of Oceanic societies from Polynesia to Papua New Guinea and testing existing theories of reciprocity and marriage exchange.[3] She also applies the concept to explain examples such as the Kula ring in the Trobriand Islands, which was made famous by Bronisław Malinowski.[4] She explores how such possessions enable hierarchy by establishing a source of lasting social difference. She also describes practices of loaning inalienable possessions as a way of either "temporarily making kin of non-kin" or garnering status.
^Cite error: The named reference Mills 2004 238 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Mauss 2000
^Weiner, Annette (1992). Inalienable Possessions: The paradox of keeping-while-giving. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 131–47.
^Weiner, Annette (1992). Inalienable Possessions: The paradox of keeping-while-giving. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 32–3.
and 25 Related for: Inalienable possessions information
Inalienablepossessions (or immovable property) are things such as land or objects that are symbolically identified with the groups that own them and...
In linguistics, inalienablepossession (abbreviated INAL) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or...
Look up inalienable, inaliénable, or inalienability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Inalienable or inalienability may refer to: Inalienable right,...
that control Title (property) Inalienablepossession, relationship between two objects that is irreversible Possession (linguistics), grammatically expressed...
and introduced a series of technical terms such as reciprocity, inalienablepossessions, and presentation to distinguish between the different forms of...
argument about reciprocity and the "spirit of the gift" in terms of "inalienablepossessions: the paradox of keeping while giving." Weiner contrasts "moveable...
alienable possession, inalienablepossession can only take the order of possessor-possessum. Biak contains three subsets of inalienability: body parts...
present or future possession. A and O possession refer to alienable and inalienablepossession in Rapa Nui. a marks for alienable possession and o marks for...
prefixes. Arawakan languages tend to distinguish alienable and inalienablepossession. A feature found throughout the Arawakan family is a suffix (whose...
There are two key syntactic constructions for possession: alienable and inalienable. Inalienablepossession refers to the relationship between a person/being...
alienable possession or inalienablepossession. An alienably possessed item (a tree, for example) can exist even without a possessor. But inalienably possessed...
languages, a special form of the noun, the genitive case, is used to show possession. In Muscogee this relationship is expressed in two quite different ways...
argument about reciprocity and the "spirit of the gift" in terms of inalienablepossessions: "the paradox of keeping while giving." Weiner contrasted "moveable...
particular culture or government, and so are universal, fundamental and inalienable (they cannot be repealed by human laws, though one can forfeit their...
Reciprocity Redistribution Value Wealth Gift economy Limited good Inalienablepossessions Singularization (commodity pathway) Spheres of exchange Social...
Reciprocity Redistribution Value Wealth Gift economy Limited good Inalienablepossessions Singularization (commodity pathway) Spheres of exchange Social...
[citation needed] Obligatory possession is sometimes called inalienablepossession. However, true inalienablepossession is a semantic notion, largely...
gift, as demonstrated in books such as Annette Weiner's (1992) InalienablePossessions: The Paradox of Keeping While Giving. Mauss's view on sacrifice...
acting as both alienable and inalienablepossessions depending on the temporal and spatial context. Alienable possessions are objects that can be bought...
Reciprocity Redistribution Value Wealth Gift economy Limited good Inalienablepossessions Singularization (commodity pathway) Spheres of exchange Social...
common in Austronesian languages, of alienable and inalienablepossession, respectively. Alienable possession denotes a relationship in which the thing possessed...
for himself, 1,000 for every pack-ox, and 2,000 for every slave in his possession.[citation needed] The shells were fastened together in strings of forty...
dominion as in the first case, but with the intention of taking absolute possession of it themselves and driving out or killing its original inhabitants....
Reciprocity Redistribution Value Wealth Gift economy Limited good Inalienablepossessions Singularization (commodity pathway) Spheres of exchange Social...
piece of feminist anthropology. In 1992 she published the book InalienablePossessions: The paradox of keeping-while-giving at the University of California...