Editing Morality (section)

===Tribal and territorial===
[[Celia Green]] made a distinction between tribal and territorial morality.<ref name="Green">Green, Celia (2004). ''Letters from Exile: Observations on a Culture in Decline''. Oxford: Oxford Forum. Chapters I–XX.</ref> She characterizes the latter as predominantly negative and proscriptive: it defines a person's territory, including his or her property and dependents, which is not to be damaged or interfered with. Apart from these proscriptions, territorial morality is permissive, allowing the individual whatever behaviour does not interfere with the territory of another. By contrast, tribal morality is prescriptive, imposing the norms of the collective on the individual. These norms will be arbitrary, culturally dependent and 'flexible', whereas territorial morality aims at rules which are universal and absolute, such as [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s '[[categorical imperative]]' and [[Norman Geisler|Geisler]]'s [[graded absolutism]]. Green relates the development of territorial morality to the rise of the concept of private property, and the ascendancy of contract over status.