Deterritorialization is a concept created by Gilles
Deleuze and Félix Guattari in Anti-Oedipus (1972), which, in accordance to Deleuze's desire and
philosophy, quickly became used by others, for example in anthropology, and transformed in this reappropriation. Deleuze and Guattari encouraged this use of their
concepts in other senses than that they were "originally created for", since they didn't believe in this conception of an
"original sense", which could be more or less related with phenomenology. Deleuze said,
for example, that the people who had best understood the Anti-Oedipus were persons that were neither (university)
philosophers nor psychoanalysts. He particularly liked a letter sent to him by an origami-maker,
who had seen new inspiration in the book Le Pli (The Fold).
Common sense
Deterritorialization may mean to take the control and order away from a land or place (territory) that is already established.
It is to undo what has been done. For example, when the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, the Spanish eliminated many symbols of Aztec
beliefs and rituals. Reterritorialization usually follows, as in the example when the Spanish replaced the traditional
structures with their own beliefs and rituals.
Deleuze & Guattari's use of the concept
Deleuze and Guattari distinguished in A Thousand Plateaus (1980) a
relative deterritorialisation and an absolute
one ("Earth"). Relative deterritorialisation is always accompanied by reterritorialisation, while positive absolute
deterritorialisation is more alike to the construction of a "plane of immanence",
akin to Spinoza's ontological constitution of the world
[1].
There is also a negative sort of absolute deterritorialisation, for example in the subjectivation process (the face).
Use in anthropology
When referring to culture, anthropologists use the term deterritorialized to refer to a weakening of ties between
culture and place. This means the removal of cultural subjects and objects from a certain location in space and time. It implies
that certain cultural aspects tend to transcend specific territorial boundaries in a world that consists of things fundamentally
in motion. Although this refers to culture changing, it does not mean that culture is looked at as an evolving process with no
anchors. Also, often when one culture is changing, it is because another is being reinserted into a different culture. This relates to the idea of a globalization
of culture. In this process, culture is simultaneously deterritorialized and reterritorialized in different parts of the world as
it moves. As cultures are uprooted from certain territories, they gain a special meaning in the new territory which they are
taken into.
See also
Endnotes
- Antonio Negri, The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics, Translated by
Michael Hardt. University of Minnesota Press, 1991.
References
- Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Félix, A Thousand Plateaus
- Inda, Jonathon, Xavier. The Anthropology of Globalization.
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