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, whether individual or collective, or it may be 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, for example hunting land, grazing land and pasture. In more developed agricultural societies, private ownership comes to predominate. Yet Hobhouse pointed out that although tribal common ownership disappears, common ownership may still be maintained for the joint-family.

R.H. Lowie, in an excellent short account of property that draws on much comparative material from primitive and civilized societies, presents much the same view. There is personal private property among all primitive people, including names, dances, songs, myths, ceremonial regalia, gifts, weapons and household implements. So far as the instruments of production are concerned, there are differences between hunters and food-gatherers, where land is tribal property, and agriculturalists and pastoralists. Among agriculturalists individual private property in land is frequently found, though the clan or tribe may still control its use or alienation. Among pastoralists land may be communally owned but not the livestock, for the ownership of livestock strongly develops the sense of individual property.