possessionism

English

Etymology

possession +‎ -ism

Noun

possessionism (uncountable)

1. The tendency to expand one's ownership of property without regard for its ethical implications
   • 1995, M. D. Goulder, St. Paul Versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions, page 119:

     The Pastorals are defending Pauline incarnational christology against Jewish Christian myths justifying possessionism

   • 1998, Gary Gentile, The Lusitania Controversies: Atrocity of War and a Wreck-Diving History, page 222:

     Possessionism in wreck diving regard can be characterized generally as the compulsive collection of artifacts

   • 2009, Manny Farber, Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, page 370:

     They're always viewed in relation to American suburbanism, possessionism, commodityism, or copism.

   • 2014, John Ernest, The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative:

     […] racial theories and the unprecedented increase in colonial expansionism and territorial possessionism, as exemplified by Britain's “imperial century,” […]

See also

• possessionist