Life Examined
The role of land and landownership in shaping our history
From Bronze Age farmers to New World colonialists, land ownership has been prized, sought after, inherited and fought over.
By Jonathan Bastian • • 51m ListenFrom Bronze Age farmers to New World colonialists, land ownership has been prized, sought after, inherited and fought over. The hunger for land has resulted in wars, class structure, persecution and the displacement of thousands of Indigenous tribes. Today, financial security and adulthood is still marked by owning a house on a plot of soil but is owning private property a sign of a civilized or uncivilized society? Is it time for governments and communities to finally consider how the native people, who originally shepherded the land thoughtfully and soundly, might once again be considered its rightful “owners.”
In this episode
2 storiesIs it time to rethink the way we manage and own land?
The hunger to own land has shaped human history. The early Britons, who marked their boundaries with rocks were a far cry from the imperial explorers and mapmakers who laid claim to territory, regardless of local history, customs or geography.
Read the story28 minHow Indigenous ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ teaches us to live in reciprocity with the land
Land has been a central issue between Natives and non-Natives since the earliest days when European explorers first were greeted by the indigenous peoples of North America.
Read the story24 min
