Property in All the Wrong Places?

In Who Owns Native Culture? and Public Lands and Political Meaning, an anthropologist and a historian document an ever-increasing deployment of property categories in two quite different domains: native people's recent cultural claims in the first book and the longer story of the United States's public rangelands in the second. Both authors take a jaundiced view of this growth in propertization, arguing that in their respective subjects, property rhetoric paralyzes fluid and negotiated problem solving while undermining respectful relationships among parties. This Review suggests, however, that both authors may be underestimating the ability ofproperty institutions to morph into new and useful forms-forms that can aid wide-ranging negotiations and enhance respect and understanding among the participating persons and groups.