What is property? How did a notion of ownership appear in the world? The traditional legal study does not give us any answers to the above questions. A notion of ownership had appeared before a written history began. Thus, a legal historical study does not give us any answers to the above questions. However, anthropological studies afford an excellent insight in to these questions. Imagine an ancient society where food was not sufficient. In order to promote food production, farming became important. People would become eager only when a fruit of their labor in farming could be certainly acquired. In such a community needed a notion of land ownership. The notion of land ownership protects an investor in farming at the first stage, and it contributes to an enlargement of food production in a community as a whole in the second stage. Thus, a notion of land ownership appeared in a farming society. This might occur in an ancient society. However, a similar phenomenon occurred in a modern society. In an industrial society, an invention is crucial in order to promote an industrial production. An invention or a new technology is a result of investment for research and development. If imitation of an invention or a new technology is possible, no one would make an investment for research and development. Thus a notion of an intellectual property became necessary in a modern industrial society. From ancient to modern days, a history repeats on the same logic. These are the social structure of a birth of ownership of capital goods. A social structure of a birth of ownership of consumption goods is different. Among consumption goods, food is most important. Social order concerning food had begun before a history of human being started. In primate societies, respect for possession of food by an individual is respected by the others. In case an infant possesses food, even a leader monkey cannot take it by force. In addition, distribution of food is not seldom in societies of chimpanzees and pygmy chimpanzees. This paper focuses and analyses these phenomena.
