"The rhizome is an antigenealogy." (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p.11)

"A rhizome is a map that "fosters connections between fields....The map is open and connectable in all its dimensions; it is detachable, reversible, susceptible to constant modification....A map has multiple entryways, as opposed to the tracing, which always comes back 'to the same'. The map has to do with performance, whereas the tracing always involves an alleged competence." (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p.12-13)

Perhaps it would be more useful to think of genealogy as a process of mapping rather than tracing. The idea of tracing family history presupposes its existence in advance. The role of the genealogist is then to uncover what is already there. But, as Derrida helps us to see, the past and present cannot be neatly separated from one another, as any idea of the present is always constituted through the difference and deferral of the past, as well as anticipations of the future.

In 'fostering connections between fields', the genealogist can act then more like a nomad, focussing our attention on the process of history construction, the journey, the intermezzo or medium, rather than on attempting to discover 'roots' or origins.

"The nomad has a territory; he follows customary paths; he goes from one point to another; he is not ignorant of points (water points, dwelling points, assembly points, etc). But the question is what in nomad life is a principle and what is only a consequence....The life of a nomad is the intermezzo....The nomad is not at all the same as the migrant; the migrant goes principally from one point to another, even if the second point is uncertain, unforeseen, or not well localised. But the nomad goes from point to point only as a consequence and as a factual necessity; in principle, points for him are relays along a trajectory." (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p.320)