The perils of belonging : autochthony citizenship and exclusion in Africa and Europe Despite being told that we now live in a cosmopolitan world more and more people have begun to assert their identities in ways that are deeply rooted in the local. These claims of autochthony—meaning “born from the soil”—seek to establish an irrefutable primordial right to belong and are often employed in politically charged attempts to exclude outsiders. In The Perils of Belonging Peter Geschiere traces the concept of autochthony back to the classical period and incisively explores the idea in two very different contexts: Cameroon and the Netherlands. Elusive Autochthony History and Culture Cpmparisons Cameroon : Nation Building and Autochthony as Processes of Subjectivation Nation Building as an Everyday Reality Rituals of Belonging : The Funeral at Home as a Celebration of Autochthony Epilogue : Can the Land Lie Autochthonys Uncertainties in Africa and Europe Varying Patterns of Nation Building in Africa and Their Implications Autochthony and the Search for Ritual in Europe