week 6 blog

The distinction between “domestic” and “foreign” Poles is a pattern that I’ve found particularly relevant to my project’s exploration of indigenous communities. While we traditionally define indigeneity as an isolated community tied to land and victimised by colonialism, I want to “spin it on its head” and ask: is it really that black and white?

Conrad’s work shows that globalisation around 1900 didn’t just move people; it forced the state to redefine who belonged to the land. This reflects a core question in my research: what defines indigeneity? If a community has a transnational reach or moves out of their own free will, does that change their status as “indigenous”? For the Germans, the “foreign Pole” was a threat precisely because of this mobility, whereas the “domestic Pole” was accepted only because they were legislatively “locked” into the Prussian state.

This tension between land and identity is also evident in the “land struggle” (Bodenkampf) in Prussia’s eastern provinces. This was effectively a form of “continental imperialism,” where the state used geography, through language and schooling, as a tool for “Germanisation”. In my research, I’m looking at how war and the movement of land can be viewed as an indigenous “colonial” method. Just as the Comanche used tree marking to establish a history and legacy with their land, the Prussian state used the trope of “German work” (deutsche Arbeit) to claim a superior, “natural” right to the territory.

However, where the Comanche markers were organic, the state’s markers were bureaucratic. The introduction of the “Obligation of Domestic Legitimisation” and identity cards transformed the worker into a seasonal “vector” rather than a resident. This suggests that “culture can function like a nature,” locking groups into a specific genealogy and determining who is a “danger” to the national identity based on their origin.

Ultimately, my project will argue that understanding nations and natures requires looking at both “roots” and “routes”. The geography of belonging isn’t just about a static tie to the land; it’s about how states and communities use movement, work, and even war to define who they are in a globalising world. As I continue to hone my definition of indigeneity, Conrad’s “real” colony provides a vital framework for seeing how identity borders are drawn long before a physical border is ever crossed.