Serving tea, women’s social labor, and the intergenerational problem of negotiating “our culture.” Despite the enjoyment of New Year (Nowruz) ritual social visits, a treasured national holiday respite is a dreaded domestic endurance test, and a quiet war between generations of women. While men quote poetry rhapsodizing over the joys of spring celebrations, women dash between guests, stove, and front door in order properly to serve tea. Woe to the daughter who would prefer to retreat to the more intimate pleasures of the nuclear family achieved through partnership marriage. Unlike religious traditions that some women can challenge through informed argument over proper interpretation, secular social obligations can be experienced as oppressive but nearly inviolable. Hannah Arendt’s theorization of “the social” as a nonnegotiable sphere lacking in possibilities for free action helps explain why it might be easier to rebel against religious norms and laws than dare to defy the accumulated familial and national weight of social tradition, and informs the situation of younger Iranian women at odds with, while trying to remain loyal to, the cultural norms their mothers still uphold.

This chapter explores the fundamental aspects of property law in China, emphasising its reach and function as a socially constructed concept. It begins by defining the scope of property law and its significance in a socialist-transitioning China, where property is seen not just as a tangible asset but as a relationship between individuals and society. It delves into the historical development of property law, tracing changes from ancient times through the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the subsequent legal reforms.

The chapter also examines the constitutional property clause, highlighting amendments that have progressively recognised and protected private property rights. It discusses significant rural land reforms, focusing on the transition from collective to more individualised land use rights and the implications for agricultural productivity and social stability. Furthermore, the chapter addresses the protection of property rights, outlining legal mechanisms for the enforcement and safeguarding of these rights.

The Introduction lays out the context, the motives, and the main features of the reinvention of Roman property in nineteenth-century Europe. It introduces the global professional network of elite liberal jurists who embarked in this ambitious project and explores the reasons of their attraction to Roman propert and their committment to changing ideas of modernization. Further the introduction examines the conceptual structre of modern dominium.