Territory is as old as instinct. In the wild, among wolves and hyenas, lions and dogs, territoriality is a primal impulse—etched not in law but in blood and muscle. These creatures, including early humans in their most unrefined state, claim as much land as they can defend, guided by the rudimentary calculus of strength and survival. To possess is to protect, and to protect is to fight.
Property, by contrast, is not a fact of nature but a fiction of civilization. It does not emerge from instinct but from institution. Unlike territory, which can exist in a world without politics or language, property requires an architecture of rules, a scaffolding of law, and a sovereign authority capable of enforcement. Where territory is animal, property is human—or more precisely, it is the invention of humans who have transcended the animal condition through law, contract, and consensus.
In this light, the distinction between brutes and citizens becomes clear: the former seize land by force, the latter acquire property by law. One marks his dominion with tooth and claw; the other with title deeds and court orders. Territory belongs to the jungle; property, to the polis.
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