Property, in Hobhouse's phrase, 'is to be conceived in terms of the control of man over things', a control which is recognized by society, more or less permanent and exclusive. Property may be private (individual or collective) or common. In his account of the development of property, Hobhouse observed that there is some personal private property in all societies, but that in many primitive societies the principal economic resources are communally owned (e.g. hunting land, grazing land, pasture). In more developed agricultural societies, private ownership comes to predominate. But Hobhouse pointed out that although tribal common ownership disappears, common ownership may be maintained for the jointfamily. R.H. Lowie, in an excellent short account of property, which uses much comparative material from primitive and civilized societies, presents much of the same view, There is personal private property among all primitive people, including names, dances, songs, myths, ceremonial regalia, gifts, weapons, household implements. So far as the 'instruments of production' are concerned there are differences between hunters and food-gatherers, where the land is tribal property (not always well-defined) and agriculturalists and pastoralists. Among agriculturalists individual private property in land is frequently found, though the clan or tribe may still exercise some control over its use or alienation. In the case of pastoralists, land may be communally owned but not the livestock; 'the ownership of livestock strongly develops the sense of individual property'.
In more developed agricultural societies
