The value of the homeland: Land in Duhok, Kurdistan‐Iraq, as territory, resource, and landscape

Abstract

Drawing from fieldwork in Kurdistan's Duhok Province between 2013 and 2018, this article scrutinizes the notion of “homeland” through a focus on three ways in which land is valued—as territory, resource, and landscape. Territory, control, and sovereignty over land are claimed in the name of an ethnically defined national whole, yet when approaching land as resource and landscape, we see fissures and cracks that nationalist rhetoric obscures. In each of these, spatial and temporal horizons intersect, while the different temporal scales also imply different social actors: those with local roots may invest in land, while outsiders cannot acquire property; those who seek to make a living from agriculture resent policies that privilege extractive industries. The tensions between these dimensions emerge in contestations over who is at home in this land and how they should inhabit and engage with it properly, as extractivist and speculative usages are both desired and uneasily judged to be at odds with more productive or sustainable practices.

Landscapes of value

“…These deep‐seated attachments to homeland also form a crux of Lange's ethnographic analysis of a triad of land valuation in Kurdistan. Lange (2022) opens with the story of an orchardist who recognizes that his family incurs financial losses from his dedicated almond and fruit cultivation but who still insists he would rather give up his own son than stop cultivating. In contrast to people in the Kurdish diaspora, who long for their homeland from afar, Lange's interlocutors are people who remain in Kurdistan, living in the Duhok province.…”

“…Recognizing that homeland is construed differently by those who have left and those who remain, she theorizes the notion of homeland by bringing into conversation the lenses of nationalistic territory, resource, and finally landscape, shot through with memories and relationships. Homeland becomes “a source of memories and pain, as well as a focus of projections, desires, and mobilization” (Lange 2022, 271). It is in part because of these deep‐seated, affective attachments that land occupies a different cultural position and resists commodification.…”

“…Lange (2022) brings alternative ways of conceptualizing speculative landscapes into focus through her insightful analysis of homeland in Kurdistan. In her analysis, she highlights that denizens of the region invest landscapes with various kinds of worth.…”

“…In her analysis, she highlights that denizens of the region invest landscapes with various kinds of worth. One form is potential territory, a landscape that affords the basis of a sovereign state, and one that locals meet through a “rhetoric of potential,” a “pervasive sense of optimism and hopeful anticipation” for what is often described as “the Other Iraq” (Lange 2022, 272). Another form of landscape valuation is through assessing the resources contained therein.…”

“…As a terrain of potential tourism and extractive industry, Lange highlights that foreign investors see enormous profit potential across the landscape. Regional developers describe “a land of possibilities” and “an awesome opportunity for companies”; some go so far as to say—paraphrasing the Board of Investment—that Kurdistan isn't quite heaven, but could be (Lange 2022, 274). Such anticipatory aspirations brought significant real estate investment “driven by the speculative hope for an even brighter future” (Lange 2022, 275).…”