Much contemporary discourse about Indigenous and liberal conceptions of the nexus between property, culture, and individualism has emphasized the dichotomy between Indigenous and western European paradigms of property. Yet a closer examination of property forms in liberal society reveals a far wider range of Indigenous-style property holding than is broadly recognized. Versions of the collective ownership, control and self-constraint associated with the Indigenous model can also be seen in numerous forms of liberal property holding in non-Indigenous society, particularly where people are seeking to realize the Indigenous goods of distributive equity, community and collegiality, and the preservation of social or group identity.
