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In this contribution we develop a historical reconstruction of the theoretical tensions and innovations promoted by the circulation of the legal category of the social function of property. We trace the conceptual history of this category considering as a focal point its application in the processes of social transformation that took place in Chile between 1930 and 1973, mainly from the theoretical work developed by the Chilean jurist Eduardo Novoa Monreal. We argue that Novoa's theorizations on the social function not only dispute the classical sense of the concept of property predominant in the national legal culture, but also account for an important break with the mechanistic reading of law preponderant within orthodox Marxist thought. In this sense, this work of conceptual appropriation and innovation represents a particular case of cultural translation of normative knowledge that contextually situates the global circulation of justifications aimed at disputing the concept of private property as an absolute and inviolable right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]