Genealogy

From Geography

The term genealogy was used by Nietzsche in 1882 and was adopted by Michel Foucault. Genealogy is a technique that searches back in the history of beliefs and concepts. Genealogy does not search for the origin and does not intend to construct a linear overview, rather it seeks versatile or contradictory elements of the past. Hereby genealogy deconstructs truth, as Nietzsche found that only that which has never had a history can be defined with any certainty (Harrison, 2006).

Foucault was influenced by Nietzsche’s work. He practices genealogy as a historical-philosophical method. He studied amongst others prisons and human sexuality which he wrote as detailed genealogies of the various ways in which bodies and minds were and are historically constituted (Harrison, 2006). 'Foucault claimes that his purpose in writing was not to write a history of the past, but a history of the present, in order to illuminate how we have arrived where we are, which will open up future possibilities of chang and resistance.' (Gregory et al. 2009 p. 270).'

Genealogy also attacks the common picture of a glorious past, like total history - (total history vs general history) - of Foucault. The theory of genealogy uses many different sources and details. Where archaeology analysis could say nothing about the causes of the transition from one way of thinking to another, this is the aim of genealogy (Gutting, 2010). Kramsch explained the workings of genealogy by comparing it to the genealogy of a family which implies tracing back the roots of a family through a family tree (Kramsch, personal communication, 17.09.2010).

References

Gregory,D. Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M.J. and Whatmore, S. (2009). The dictionary of human geography. Blackwell Publishing, UK.

Gutting, Gary, "Michel Foucault", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries/foucault/>.

Harrison, P. (2006). Poststructuralist Theories. In: Aitken, S. & Valentine, G. (2006). Approaches to human geography. Sage, London.

By Anouk Soomers and Sabrina Willems