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Cartographies of Belonging: Reflections on Indigeneity and Autochthony

In: Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies
Author:
Deanna Cachoian-Schanz PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, PA USA

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Online Publication Date:
02 Jun 2023
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Abstract

This creative nonfiction reflects upon the political utility of the terms “indigeneity” and “autochthony” to describe human (and non-human) groups as genealogically bound to or originally springing from singular geographies. What do these terms reinscribe, and what might attachments to them foreclose to the Armenian, and more broadly, to the collective human experience? This mix of text and image is a plea to move beyond an “autochthonous” logic that naturalizes the coupling of bodies to lands to account, instead, for a more just and capacious understanding of existence as by, through, and for the in/animate “other” across multiple geographies and timescapes.

Abstract

This creative nonfiction reflects upon the political utility of the terms “indigeneity” and “autochthony” to describe human (and non-human) groups as genealogically bound to or originally springing from singular geographies. What do these terms reinscribe, and what might attachments to them foreclose to the Armenian, and more broadly, to the collective human experience? This mix of text and image is a plea to move beyond an “autochthonous” logic that naturalizes the coupling of bodies to lands to account, instead, for a more just and capacious understanding of existence as by, through, and for the in/animate “other” across multiple geographies and timescapes.

Keywords: Indigeneity; autochthony; body; land; origins
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Citation: Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 2023; 10.1163/26670038-12342796

Thank you to the editors of JSAS for their invitation to be the journal’s inaugural graduate fellow and for comments and contributions to this piece; to my interlocutors in Armenia and Turkey who allowed me to cite their thoughts on indigeneity; and finally, to my readers for their indispensable suggestions: K. Schwerzmann, A. Ayaz, and A. Avakian.

Title:
Cartographies of Belonging: Reflections on Indigeneity and Autochthony
Article Type:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/26670038-12342796
Language:
English
Pages:
1–21
Keywords:
Indigeneity; autochthony; body; land; origins
In:
Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies
In:
Advance Articles
Publisher:
Brill
E-ISSN:
2667-0038
Print ISSN:
0747-9301
Subjects:
Christians & Jews, Middle East and Islamic Studies

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