Humans are the only animals that have own property and recognize others’. No animal carries anything around. Many animals have their territory but not property. Property is something beneficial and primarily for the future. On the other hand, the territory is something required for constant surveillance to exclude others. If it is a space, a territory is the area one can survey at one moment. The sensible space by visual, audible and smelling limits the size of the territory. Even if one claims an area wider than his sensible space as his territory, the space outside of the sensing at one moment would be constantly invaded and insulted by others. In other words, no one owns anything in nature. Everything is at present.
Humans capture the future. Without cognizing the future, the property is not needed. There is no point in owning anything without capturing the future. What allows humans to cognize the future? I speculate that because of bipedal walking and languages. Two free hands during movement and opposable thumbs to fingers. Although the use of primitive tools is recognized in some animals, none makes them and carries them around except humans. Using tools demands an intellectual ability and a short-term future prediction. However, all these activities are spontaneous and local procurement. Making something to use and carrying non-life essentials require goals and purposes. Cooking, too. Keeping and storing are all preparations for the future. Did two free hands permit to evoke the future, or did cognition of the future create tangible properties? I do not know. But what looks clear is that properties are not for the present but for the future.
Cognizing the future also creates anticipation and anxiety. If everything is inconsistent and unpredictable, no property would emerge. I should rephrase this. You must recognize consistency in your experience to make and carry properties. Otherwise, you must always keep high alert to all surrounding environments for survival.
On the other hand, if you notice consistency as a series of reproducible events, you can predict the subsequent events. This allows you to prepare for what comes next. The coming next could be a pleasure or fear. In either case, you can prepare. This predictability will be your personal, nontangible property. If you can share it with others somehow (not limited by languages), this will be a nontangible property for your group. It does not matter if it is an intellectual abstract or real object. Something to prepare for future predictable events is your property.
Consistency dictates the predictability. Interestingly, humans are the only species actively engaging with their environment to increase consistency. Having a nest and territory increases consistency in some animals, too. However, I do not think those animals intentionally have them for predictability and can capture the future. Those animals are still only reactive to the environment. They do not actively modify it for the sake of consistency. Some animals appear to be storing food for the future. I am unsure if they are storing, but probably just collecting because of their instinct. What is the difference? Presumably, none of them will care about the collected stuff, even if all gets stolen. In the end, their activities are hardwired on their genome without intention.
An animal's nest and territory are usually term-limited, not permanent for their life. To keep the territory, constant alertness and surveillance are required. On the other hand, your freedom of movement is not constrained by your property. Nothing needs to be carried and protected. You can move if you dislike your territory or someone else constantly insults it. The territory is something at present, not for the future. There is often no sharp territorial boundary like our national borders. The exclusivity against others is limited.
Properties are tightly linked with how you and your society see the future. Properties contribute to enhancing consistency and minimizing unforeseen events. Properties are tangible and nontangible. All of these create the value system shared in a group and the vested interests. The vested interests are the past investments for future usages and benefits. If you have them, you want to keep them. This creates a society which shares the value system and vested interests.
All human activities are related to vested interests. They are protecting and maximizing their vested interests based on the predicted future. All participants should follow the same value system and see a similar future to make this work. Education in a society plays an essential role in this. Because vested interests intrinsically include the predicted benefits, you hope the future should be continuous as you had projected to maximize your past investment. Therefore, all human conflicts between individuals, generations, political parties and nations are for protecting and maximizing their vested interests. This is entirely dictated by how each person sees the future.
When Europeans came to America, Native Americans had no concept of land property. The land was territories but not properties. Europeans implemented the borders for the exclusion of others from their property. Because stational living with agriculture demanded properties - an investment of hard work for future harvesting. The tangible and nontangible property reduces the uncertainness and unpredictability of the future. The property allows you to minimize alertness—instead, anticipation and anxiety emerge.
Properties are something for us to deal with our anxiety, minimizing the unpredictability of the future and hoping to keep our future in the range of predictable. The property has the power of exclusiveness. Even if anything is not in use at present and you have no idea if others are using it, it still excludes the access of others. The concept of property demands rules that others also follow and respect. In the end, the concept of property is invisible and imaginary. Therefore, the Earth has no border but for humans. Capitalism encourages the maximization of vested interests. The money economy created one value system. Someone’s property is not accessible and excludes others. The lands are owned. Is the earth owned? Are we aiming to exclude all others from the earth? What is our plan?