Societies mobilize around possession of territory

Question: What is society?
Position1 of 6›: Society is a shared territory
Argument‹2 of 2: Societies mobilize around possession of territory

The possession and defence of a territory is one of the greatest mobilizing forces in a society.

The argument

The foundations of any society can be identified by the society’s ability to mobilize and unite in defense of those shared foundations. In most societies, the defense of a shared territory is the most unifying and mobilizing force available. Members of a society will put aside any other difference to protect a particular geographic area. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that it is this shared territory that connects all the elements of a society and is the cohesion that provides the foundations on which everything else is founded.

Context

One of the most powerful unifying forces in a society is the shared defense of a territory.

Premises

[P1]A society's foundations can be identified by what it unites to defend, and in most societies the defense of shared territory is the most unifying and mobilizing force available. [P2] Members will set aside every other difference to protect a particular geographic area, showing that shared territory is the cohesion underpinning everything else. [C] Because societies mobilize above all around possession of territory, society is fundamentally a shared territory.

Counter-arguments

The fact that societies mobilize around the protection of a specific territory is not the same as asserting that a society is defined by its shared territory. A territory and a society are entirely different entities, but they have a close relationship. A territory is the natural result of the process of forming a society, but it is not an integral part of the society. If a society is de-terrorialized, is robbed of its land and forced to move, does that society become extinct? The answer is evidently no. That society may become nomadic, take another territory, or become a diaspora elsewhere, but it survives in its existing form. This would suggest that while societies have a close relationship to their territory, they are not reducible to the possession of that territory.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Just because a territory is important to a society, doesn't mean it defines it.

Framing

The importance of something can be identified by how determined somebody is to protect it. Nothing unifies and mobilizes a society as much as a threat to its territory. This indicates the central role a shared territory plays in the formation and shaping of a society.