Graft & Hinterlands

A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History by Manuel De Landa

Geological History 1700-2000 A.D.

Graft

“The original loop (coal-iron-steam-cotton), and its newly aquired nodes (railroads, telegraph), continued to function into the twentieth century. The new technologies simply grafted themselves into the previous meshwork, becoming yet other nodes, participating in its self reproduction and, hence reproducing themselves.” P.92

|graft|

verb [ trans. ]

• Horticulture insert (a scion) as a graft : it was common to graft different varieties onto a single tree trunk.

• insert a graft on (a stock).

• Medicine transplant (living tissue) as a graft : they can graft a new hand onto the arm.

• figurative insert or fix (something) permanently to something else, typically in a way considered inappropriate

ORIGIN late Middle English graff, from Old French grafe, via Latin from Greek graphion ‘stylus, writing implement’ (with reference to the tapered tip of the scion), from graphein ‘write.’ The final -t is typical of phonetic confusion between -f and -ft at the end of words; compare with tuft .

Hinterlands

“Industrial hinterlands have always emerged in close connection with dynamic urban centers, spawned and nourished by cities and towns enjoying some kind of positive feedback from their agglomeration of skills and economic functions.” P.98    

|ˈhintərˌland|

noun

the often uncharted areas beyond a coastal district or a river's banks : early settlers were driven from the coastal areas into the hinterland.

• an area surrounding a town or port and served by it : the city had grown prosperous by exploiting its local western hinterland.

• the remote areas of a region : the mountain hinterland.

• figurative an area lying beyond what is visible or known : in the hinterland of his mind these things rose, dark and ominous.

ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from German, from hinter ‘behind’ + Land ‘land.’