This powerful hereditary right probably rested on a religious basis.

The village community was considered to be bound up with its village god in one joint life, and hence no one but they could in theory have the right to cultivate the lands of that village.

The very origin and nature of this right precluded any question of transfer or alienation.

The only lands in which any ownership, corresponding to our conception of the term, was held to exist, were perhaps those granted free of revenue for the maintenance of temples, which were held to be the property of the god.

In Rome and other Greek and Latin cities the idea of private or family ownership of land also developed from a religious sentiment.