Abstract

The progress of the commons as main subject in social sciences and in public debate has caused a new focus on the genealogy of proprietorship and his ideology. Framing this ideology, for a long time individual proprietorship has been represented as opposite to discourses that justified collective resource management. However, looking at the past of juridical systems, it is possible to highlight several links between individual property rights and collective rights. In particular historical analysis reveals that the main conceptual tool for producing both individual and collective ownership consists in instituting the goods as «objects». Both individual ownership and common goods are the effect of a overwhelming trend to making the «thing» an object of appropriation. With regard to commons this mechanism operates through a dual level: naturalization and quest for origins.