THE right of property implies that a certain person or certain persons are recognised as having a right to the exclusive disposal of a certain thing. The owner is not necessarily allowed to do with his property whatever he likes; but whether absolute or limited, his right to disposal is not shared by anybody else, save under very exceptional circumstances, as in the case of “compulsion by necessity.”[1] Property in a thing thus means not only that the owner of it is allowed, at least within certain limits, to use or deal with it at his discretion, but also that other persons are forbidden to prevent him from using or dealing with it in any manner he is entitled to.
[1] Supra, [i. 285 sqq.]
The most common offence against property is illicit appropriation of other persons’ belongings. Not the mere fact that individuals are in actual possession of certain objects, but the public disapproval of acts by which they are deprived of such possession, shows that they have proprietary rights over those objects. Hence the universal condemnation of what we call theft or robbery proves that the right of property exists among all races of men known to us.
Travellers often accuse savages of thievishness.[2] But then their judgments are commonly based upon the treatment to which they have been subject themselves, and from this no conclusions must be drawn as regards intra-tribal morality. Nor can races who have had much to do with foreigners be taken as fair representatives of savage honesty, as such contact has proved the origin of thievish propensities.[3] In the majority of cases uncivilised peoples seem to respect proprietary rights within their own communities, and not infrequently even in their dealings with strangers. Many of them are expressly said to condemn or abhor theft, at any rate when committed among themselves. And that all of them disapprove of it may be inferred from the universal custom of subjecting a detected thief to punishment or revenge, or, at the very least, of compelling him to restore the stolen property to its owner.
[2] Beni, ‘Notizie sopra gli indigeni di Mexico,’ in Archivio per l’antropologia e la etnologia, xii. 15 (Apaches). Burton, City of the Saints, p. 125 (Dacotahs and Prairie Indians). Powers, Tribes of California, p. 127 (Yuki). Macfie, Vancouver Island and British Columbia, p. 468. Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 22 (Newfoundland Eskimo). Coxe, Russian Discoveries between Asia and America, p. 300 (Kinaighi). Georgi, Russia, iv. 22 (Kalmucks), 133 (Buriats). Scott Robertson, Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, p. 193 sq. Modigliani, Viaggio a Nías, p. 468. Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, p. 23 (South Sea Islanders). Romilly, From my Verandah in New Guinea, p. 50; Comrie, ‘Anthropological Notes on New Guinea,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. vi. 109 sq. de Labillardière, Voyage in Search of La Pérouse, i. 275; Moseley, Notes by a Naturalist on the “Challenger,” p. 391 (Admiralty Islanders). Brenchley, Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curaçoa, p. 58 (natives of Tutuila). Lisiansky, Voyage round the World, p. 88 sq. (Nukahivans). Williams, Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, p. 126 (natives of Rarotonga). Cooke, Journal of a Voyage round the World, p. 40; Montgomery, Journal of Voyages and Travels by Tyerman and Bennet, ii. 11 (Society Islanders). Barrington, History of New South Wales, p. 22; Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, p. 221; Collins, Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, i. 599 sq.; Hodgson, Reminiscences of Australia, p. 79; Mitchell, Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, i. 264, 304; Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 71 sq. (Australian tribes). Reade, Savage Africa, p. 579 (West African Negroes). Bosman, Description of the Coast of Guinea, p. 324 sq. (Negroes of Fida and the Gold Coast). Caillié, Travels through Central Africa, i. 353 (Mandingoes). Beltrame, Il Fiume Bianco, p. 83 (Shilluk). Wilson and Felkin, Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan, ii. 310 (Gowane people of Kordofan). Krapf, Travels, Researches and Missionary Labours in Eastern Africa, p. 355 (Wakamba). Burton, Zanzibar, ii. 92 (Wanika). Bonfanti, ‘L’incivilimento dei negri nell’ Africa intertropicale,’ in Archivio per l’antropologia e la etnologia, xv. 133 (Bantu races). Arbousset and Daumas, Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 323 (Bechuanas). Andersson, Lake Ngami, pp. 468 sq. (Bechuanas), 499 (Bayeye). Leslie, Among the Zulus and Amatongas, p. 256. Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s, pp. 53 (Kafirs), 372, 419 (Hottentots and Bushmans).
[3] Domenech, Great Deserts of North America, ii. 321. Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. xcvi. note (Crees). Burton, Highlands of the Brazil, i. 403 sq. Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, i. 321 (Ladakhis). Anderson, Mandalay to Momien, p. 151 (Kakhyens). Earl, Papuans, p. 80. Tyler, Forty Years among the Zulus, p. 192.
The Fuegians have shown themselves enterprising thieves on board European vessels visiting their shores;[4] but, when presents were given to them, a traveller noticed that “if any present was designed for one canoe, and it fell near another, it was invariably given to the right owner.”[5] The boys are taught by their fathers not to steal;[6] and in case a theft has been committed, “quand le coupable est découvert et chatié, l’opinion publique est satisfaite.”[7] In his dealings with the Tehuelches Lieutenant Musters was always treated with fairness, and the greatest care was taken of his belongings, though they were borrowed at times. He gives the following advice to the traveller:—“Never show distrust of the Indians; be as free with your goods and chattels as they are to each other…. As you treat them so they will treat you.”[8] Among the Abipones doors, locks, and other things with which civilised men protect their possessions from thieves, were as unnecessary as they were unknown; and if children pilfered melons grown in the gardens of the missionaries or chickens reared in their houses, “they falsely imagined that these things were free to all, or might be taken not much against the will of the owner.”[9] Among the Brazilian Indians theft and robbery were extremely rare, and are so still in places where strangers have not settled.[10] We are told that the greatest insult which could be offered to an Indian was to accuse him of stealing, and that the wild women preferred the epithet of a prostitute to that of a thief.[11] When detected a thief was not only obliged to restore the property he had stolen, but was punished with stripes and wounds, the chief often acting as executioner.[12] Among the Indians of British Guiana theft and pilfering rarely occur; “if they happen to take anything, they do it before one’s eyes, under the notion of having some claim to it, which, when called to an account, they are always prepared to substantiate.”[13] If anything is stolen from his house during his absence, the Guiana Indian thinks that the missing article has been carried off by people of some other race than his own.[14] Formerly, when the Caribs lost anything, they used to say, “The Christians have been here.”[15] In Hayti the punishment of a thief was to be eaten.[16]
[4] Weddell, Voyage towards the South Pole, pp. 151, 154, 182. King and Fitzroy, Voyages of the “Adventure” and “Beagle,” i. 128; ii. 188.
[5] Darwin, Journal of Researches, p. 242. See also Snow, ‘Wild Tribes of Tierra del Fuego,’ in Jour. Ethn. Soc. London, N.S. i. 264.
[6] Bridges, in A Voice for South America, xiii. 204.