The Importance Of Land And Territory

From Nature’s Eternal Religion, by Ben Klassen

Book II – Chapter 9

Even the most backward savage is well aware of the essential importance of land, room and territory within which his tribe can live and survive. So essential and self-evident is this idea that they will fight and risk their lives in order to either preserve their own, or expand and take over the adjoining tribe’s territory.

Even before the White Man ever arrived on the shores of America, the hundreds of Indian tribes constantly fought each other. And what were they fighting for? They were fighting for land, room and territory within which their tribe could hunt and live, could pitch their teepees, and their offspring could prosper and expand.

This urge and this knowledge are so basic and instinctive that even the birds and animals are well aware of this basic fact of Nature. In many cases they too stake out their territory. They know that you can only glean so much sustenance from a certain area of land and they mean to stake it out and protect it.

In an earlier chapter we noted how the majestic eagle staked out his territory, lived within it and worked it diligently. We also observed the wisdom of the wolf family, in the same chapter, of how they stake out their required territory and how they refresh their boundary markers almost weekly. We also saw how other wolf families, too, had their territory and respected adjoining boundaries. They each had the instinctive wisdom to realize that land and territory were basic to their existence. They worked it and they guarded it. Property rights and territory were evidently a serious matter between the wolf families and well organized.

In the cat family, mountain lions will do the same thing. They know they need so much territory to live in and they will stake out their territory and claim it as their own to hunt and provide sustenance for the rearing of their family. Certain types of monkeys not only organize their territory but organize the hierarchy of their tribe.  ...

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