Paper Short Abstract:

Weaving Reeds Between Two Rivers focuses on the ecological constellations between nomadic pastoralists and the water bodies of Çukurova (Cilicia). Walking with the remnants of nomadic pastoralist ecologies, it assembles counter-cartography and narratives to revive multispecies living knowledge while revealing the ruptures caused by the hegemonic infrastructures.

Paper Abstract:

Weaving Reeds Between Two Rivers focuses on the ecological constellations between nomadic pastoralists and the water bodies of Çukurova (Cilicia). Walking with the remnants of nomadic pastoralist ecologies, it assembles counter-cartography and narratives to revive multi-species living knowledge while revealing the ruptures caused by the hegemonic infrastructures.

Shaped by the rivers flowing from the Taurus Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea, Çukurova was a microclimatic delta region on southern Anatoli co-habited by non-sedentary tribes and water bodies. Over the past century, Çukurova became a global agricultural zone with Turkey’s modernization. The nation-state ideal and agrarian capitalism objectified nomadic pastoralists and water bodies as unruly entities to be domesticated and exploited. Today, their remnants are disregarded and endangered.

The study unearths the seasonal routes of sedentarized nomadic tribes and water through archival and spatial analysis to reweave a meshwork ((Ingold, 2013, p.71) of coexisting ecologies. Walking the landscape with guidance from pastoralist crafts such as herding, foraging, and fermenting, and corresponding with the materials; the research reveals pastoralists’ spatial, material and seasonal interplays with water bodies. Experiencing the current condition of the land, it also investigates the outcomes of the extractivist infrastructures. It forms counter-cartography and narratives weaving the remnants and ruptures of a nomadic pastoralist knowledge situated between two rivers.

Following the post-human critique (Braidotti, 2022) and thinking-through-making (Ingold, 2013, p.21) approach, the proposal explores walking as an embodied research method to challenge exploitative structures and reclaim the memory of Çukurova’s ecology as a site of multi-species resilience and reciprocity.