Dorsey-Class

In class we talked about when oral and literate cultures collide. One of the things we talked about was land ownership. When someone of the oral culture feels a place is reverent and is owned by no one, but should be respected and someone of the literate culture owns this space, it can be an issue. There was a man that owned some hill and was mining it, but oral people said that it was their sacred place. He asked for them to show him when the land was marked to signify ownership. To the oral people, showing the man the space and marking the space would have been irreverent so they could not do it. The man thought that they could not own the space if they had no written element showing this. So the man kept using the space how he wanted. My question is, who's purpose for the land is more important? I think it is hard to determine this, but it could go either way. The law has to decide this anytime a dispute for land is brought to court. I am afraid that often the literate culture wins.

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