A unit of real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 or immovable property

Immovable property

Immovable property is an immovable object, an item of property that cannot be moved without destroying or altering it - property that is fixed to the Earth, such as land or a house. In the United States it is also commercially and legally known as real estate and in Britain as property...

 is limited by a legal boundary. The boundary (in Latin: limes) may appear as a discontinuation in the terrain: a ditch, a bank, a hedge, a wall, or similar, but essentially, a legal boundary is a conceptual entity, a social construct, adjunct to the likewise abstract entity of property rights.

A cadastral map displays how boundaries subdivide land into units of ownership

Ownership

Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...

. However, the relations between society, owner, and land in any culture or jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...

 is conceived of in terms more complex than a tessellation

Tessellation

A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art...

. Therefore, the society concerned has to specify the rules and means by which the boundary concept is materialized and located on the ground.

A 'Western' version of the operationalization

Operationalization

In humanities, operationalization is the process of defining a fuzzy concept so as to make the concept clearly distinguishable or measurable and to understand it in terms of empirical observations...

 might be a legally specified procedure, performed by a chartered surveyor

Chartered Surveyor

Chartered Surveyor is the description ofProfessional Members and Fellows of the RICS entitled to use the designation in Commonwealth countries and Ireland...

, supported by statements from neighbors and pertinent documents, and resulting in official recording in the cadastre

Cadastre

A cadastre , using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country...

 as well as boundary markings in the field. Alternatively, indigenous people represent boundaries through ephemeral performances, such as song

Songlines

Songlines, also called Dreaming tracks by Indigenous Australians within the animist indigenous belief system, are paths across the land which mark the route followed by localised 'creator-beings' during the Dreaming...

 and dance, and, when in more permanent form, e.g. paintings or carvings, in artistic or metaphorical manner.

Related concepts

• Boundary dispute
• Digital Cadastral DataBase
  Digital Cadastral DataBase
  Digital Cadastral DataBase is a computerised map or 'spatial' location showing property boundaries normally in relation to adjoining and other close properties or parcels of land. Commonly used as a basic layer of data used in map based computer programs that gives an outline of the legal...
  
  
• National territories and border
  Border
  Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
  
  s
• Property line
  Property line
  Property line describes the legal boundary of a parcel of land. The boundary is established by a professional surveyor using a transit and or modern Global Positioning System technology...
  
  
• Redistribution
  Redistribution (economics)
  Redistribution of wealth is the transfer of income, wealth or property from some individuals to others caused by a social mechanism such as taxation, monetary policies, welfare, nationalization, charity, divorce or tort law. Most often it refers to progressive redistribution, from the rich to the...
  
  , land consolidation
• Surveying
  Surveying
  See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
  
  , Coordinate system
  Coordinate system
  In geometry, a coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. The order of the coordinates is significant and they are sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple and sometimes by...
  
  
• Territory (administrative division)
• Title (property)
  Title (property)
  Title is a legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or an equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document that serves as evidence of ownership...