topogeny
toh-POJ-eh-nee
The practice of reciting place names in geographic sequence, pulling the mind across a landscape from point to point. Observed in Apache, Cherokee, Rauto (Papua New Guinea), and dozens of other indigenous cultures. Storytelling at its most spare — narrative reduced to a string of dense linguistic seeds that flower in the mind as places.
Etymology
Greek topos (place) + -geny (origin, production). The producing of place — or, more precisely, the producing of journey through the naming of places.
Notes
Also, really fun to say: “toh-POJ-eh-nee” “toh-PODGE-eh-nee” “toe-POD-jeh-knee”
*
Surprise Me With a Word