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- Convenors:
-
Karolina Bielenin-Lenczowska
(Polish Academy of Sciences)
Glenn Bowman (University of Kent)
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- Format:
- Workshops
- Location:
- 0.5
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 27 August, -, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Ljubljana
Short Abstract:
This workshop addresses the contemporaneously vital issue of what forces work for and which against inter-communal mutuality in multi-confessional societies. It invites researchers conducting ethnographic fieldwork on communities composed of groups variously affiliated to distinct religions to address both the local specifics of particular multi-confessional societies and more general queries about cultural strategies of neighbourliness.
Long Abstract:
The workshop has a dual focus. On the one hand it is concerned with how and when situations of reciprocity between members of two or more communities occur, and with the ways such situations are sustained. In Balkan societies, for example, neighbourliness is often a compromise, in which similarities are emphasised and differences are concealed. Here there is a constant confirmation of peaceful intentions displayed by manifestations of reciprocity (exchange of ritual food, gifts, politeness, paying and receiving visits, etc). Hence it is clear that respective religious groups often perceive differences as a threat to non-violent coexistence and work to conceal or disarm these.
On the other hand, it addresses the ways in which agencies of identity politics, such as churches or ethnically-defined movements, interpret such inter-communal interaction and often work to undermine or disallow neighbourliness. Here, again, the Balkans provides salient examples of religious and nationalist movements attacking, both rhetorically and violently, manifestations of inter-communal co-operation in the pursuit of purity and authority. The issue of how local communities respond to such 'attacks' is salient to this panel and close attention will be paid to the ways in which local communities subsequently continue, modify, or cease practices which had brought ethnically or religiously diverse communities into degrees of communion.
Ethnographic fieldwork by anthropologists can provide grassroots knowledge about the ways in which multi-religious local communities use mutuality as a strategy of coping with the problem of difference. The ethnographic data to be discussed in this workshop will not only inform regional politicians, NGO activists, social workers and lawyers as to the character of the local communities they work with, but will also demonstrate -- contrary to the arguments of advocates of 'warring civilisations' -- that peoples of distinct confessional alliances not only can and do co-exist peacefully but also, in many cases, work to generate strategies allowing inter-communalism to be perpetuated despite pressures to dissolve it into warring elements.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 27 August, 2008, -Paper short abstract:
Popular and widespread macro-approaches in social sciences have often suggested that a “clash of civilisations” prevents conviviality among followers of different religions. A micro-level look at inter-confessional relations in eve-ryday life, however, often reveals a different picture.
Paper long abstract:
I focus on neighbourhood interaction in Gêba, a village in Guinea-Bissau whose population is marked by a high degree of religious and ethnic diversity which, however, does not divide people socially. Common local origin and historical narratives serve as uniting forces across religious and ethnic boundaries.
In the 17th century, Europeans, Cape Verdeans and Africans established Gêba as a trading post. Subsequently, a creole community emerged, today known Christians of Gêba. They differentiated themselves mainly from their predominantly pagan and (later) Muslim surroundings by emphasising their Catholic faith. Religion became this ethnic groups' distinctive marker, in opposition to Muslim ethnic groups. Since the 19th century, Gêba has been on the decline, causing the gradual emigration of Christians from Gêba and Muslims becoming the majority.
Inter-confessional relations in Gêba are characterised by conviviality, mutual respect, and the rejection of religiously motivated violence, and they are supported by a national ideology which fosters unity among citizens by means of conceptualising and portraying the nation as a uniting umbrella.
Although Muslims and Christians practise distinct religious ceremonies and have different places of worship there is also a common sacred site in Gêba which is frequented by both Muslims and Christians.
Shared identification among Muslims and Christians is also maintained through historical narratives referring to Gêba's presumed former prominence, expressing the villagers' pride in their town. Thus, it is locality which serves as the main source of identification among the inhabitants of Gêba, thereby creating common identity transcending ethnic and religious boundaries.
Paper short abstract:
The Polish Tartars are a good example of a religious community which has lived in a multiethnic and multireligious environment for very many years. One of the consequences of being a religious minority is a creation of many different types of cultural strategies of cooperation with the neighbours.
Paper long abstract:
My research interests focus on a small Muslim community of 5000 Polish Tartars who have inhabited Poland for over 600 years. Nowadays Polish Tartars do not constitute a socially compact community, as they are dispersed all over the Poland, living mostly in smaller or bigger towns. They do not cultivate their traditional community life around the place of their residence, but rather around moments of being together on religious, ethnic or family occasions. The Polish Tartars are a very good example of the religious community living in a multiethnic and multireligious environment for very many years. One of the consequences of being a religious minority is a creation of many different types of cultural strategies of cooperation with their neighbours (i.e. the locals, Poles or Christians, and others). The main purpose of these activities has been to preserve group cultural/religious characteristic and not to assimilate but rather to become "a tamed other" within the Polish (Christian) society. This "cooperation strategy" means, e.g., organizeing intercommunal activities on a religious and cultural level; to meet with Christians during their religious holidays or to invite them for Muslim weddings or to develop ideology of complementarity with Polishness, which has taken a shape of an identity description: We are Polish Muslims.
According to my research results, the tendency towards separation from Christians does not dominate in groups actions, which we can observe in a drive to redefine religious resources and it is directed inwards, not outwards, and it concentrates mostly on a "discussion" with other Muslims, not with Christians.
Paper short abstract:
Shared shrines in the Eastern Mediterranean have been related to representations of a past characterized by "tolerance" towards the religious other. In fact, they are situated in marginal lands and embody the relation between local -chthonian- spirits (Saints, holy men, etc) and alternative concepts of local social communities and identities.
Paper long abstract:
Shared religious practices in the Balkans and the larger post-Ottoman space, have been the focuses of recent ethnographic research {Bowman, 1993; Hayden, 2002; Hann and Goltz, forthcoming). These phenomena have often been related to representations of a past characterized by "tolerance" towards the religious other.
My paper is based on ethnographic observation of an annual festival taking place at one of the sites traditionally visited by both Christians and Muslims in Istanbul - and still attracting tens of thousands of people. I look at the local configurations of such sacred places in a comparative perspective within the Eastern Mediterranean, where Christianity and Islam have a long tradition of coexistence and highlight the specific concepts of space and representations of the local community involved.
Shared shrines are mostly situated in marginal places, outside and beyond the state-controlled administrative territories, villages or towns, often in the wilderness. They become focal points of the autochthonous communities, across religious frontiers. Sharing sacra seems a phenomenon at once local and marginal, pointing to the dynamics involved in the making of concepts of belonging to place - beyond and despite organized religious and political communities. The ways local society copes with the consequences of (officially prohibited) marriages across religious frontiers point to the existence of larger collective identities, expressed during celebrations at shared shrines, outside the jurisdiction of political and religious authorities. Is there a relation between local -chthonian- spirits and alternative concepts of local social identities?
Paper short abstract:
Western Macedonia is inhabited mostly by Muslims, but signs of Christians presence remained visible. Their holy places are often visited by Muslims who are looking for magical ways of healing. These practices are explained as necessity for emphasizing similarities between Islam and Christianity.
Paper long abstract:
Based on fieldwork in Western Macedonia, I examine Muslim uses of Orthodox churches and monasteries. Today only Muslims live in the villages I researched although in the 1960s and 1970s these places were also inhabited by Orthodox Christians. These Christians moved to the cities looking for jobs and education while for the most part the Muslims remained behind (although recently these too have started to migrate abroad). In all villages there were two parts (maalo) of Christians and Muslims as well as two temples (church and mosque).
Interlocutors recall this neighbourhood as very close and friendly. They point a necessity of cooperating since they used to live and work together, i.e. all depended on others. The politics of neighbourliness revealed in paying and receiving visits, exchanging gifts and respecting of others' feasts and customs.
Even though currently Christians have not lived in villages of Western Macedonia, material signs of their presence still exist. Those are churches, monasteries, cemeteries. Christian holy places are often visited by Muslims who need some magical ways for healing. They frequent monasteries or churches to light candles for health and happiness. It is commonly believed between Muslims that sleeping in monasteries improves health and cures diseases.
Interlocutors' explanations depict a need for defining differences between Christianity and Islam and diminish them by emphasizing similarities between feasts and values presented in the Bible and in the Koran. Christian temples are defined as "houses of God", i.e. are put on a par with mosques.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses the competing views and forces of conflict and cooperation in post-war Mostar, and how the different forms of territorial, cultural and confessional local identifications are portrayed through the representations and the symbolic use of the urban space.
Paper long abstract:
Fragmentation and cohesion are two opposed funding forces and elements of Mostar demographic, cultural and political history. A sense of distinction and uniqueness has traditionally been, and still is, an important aspect of the local urban identity, but Mostar's historical picture of cohesion can be easily reversed underlying the high difficulties in, and the strong reluctance to cooperation and pacific coexistence between groups.
In this paper, our intention is to focus on the trends towards separation and conflict, and on those towards cohesion and cooperation in Mostar, and to see how these attitudes and inclinations have interacted in the very recent history. Our paper is based on a research we are conducting on the historical evolution of the political geography in Mostar after the 1990s war. The research has started in association with a project of an ethnographic film on postwar Mostar ("Around Mostar, the Bridge and Bruce Lee"). The task of our research, partly overlapping with the fieldwork for the ethnographic film, has been to observe the visual traces and discuss the symbolism in the urban public space to analyze the extent of division and integration in town. Therefore, in our research we are trying to observe how the two main and dominant ethnic and national groups present in Mostar since the end of the war have been interacting in the public arena, and to observe the elements of conflict and cooperation between them and among the whole population.
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores the changing character of prevailing forms of representations that inform the relationships between two neighbouring peoples in a West African border zone. It focuses on the consequences of religious identity construction and the breakdown of reciprocity and mutual trust in the context of post-conflict, multi-confessional communities.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the changing character of prevailing forms of representations that inform the relationships between two neighbouring peoples in a West African border zone. In the hinterland of Liberian and Guinea two clusters of peoples have coexisted for several centuries in both a peaceful and at times a belligerent manner. These peoples include the politically dominant and economically successful Mandingo and the self-proclaimed autochthonous 'forest peoples' of various ethnic origins. The Mandingo are Muslim and a majority of the forest peoples remain committed to secret society religious practice. Matrilateral alliance between mother's brothers and sister's sons has long served as a binding metaphor characterising inter-communal relationship. Forest people 'uncles' have been ascribed the status as first arrivals in relation to the latecoming Mandingo 'nephews'. In the wake of prolonged civil wars and ethnic conflict, the recognition of rights and obligations associated with metaphorical kinship has been giving way to a new politics of identity that emphasises religious and cultural differences. Contrary to the reciprocal relationship implied by matrilateral kinship, the current expression of religious identity nurtures feelings of difference and exclusiveness that sustain the risk of further violence. The paper seeks to know whether an irreversible change of politics of neighbourliness is taking place in the studied area; or, if local strategies of co-existence suffice to cope with the problem of difference. It furthermore asks to what extent the prevailing, exclusivist identity and rights discourse pertaining to religion may be seen also as an effect of global connections.
Paper short abstract:
Basing on my fieldwork in Dagestan I will show how ethnically and (to lesser extent) confessionally heterogeneous local communities in Dagestan respond to attacks of religious or ethnic movements of various groups.
Paper long abstract:
Dagestan is Russia's most ethnically heterogeneous republic, which over 30 ethnic groups, most of them Muslim, some Christian and Jewish.
"What's the difference what's my nation or religion? Do you want to "reduce me" to nationality? We all live here peacefully"- I kept on hearing from Dagestanis, usually referring to their neighbours from different ethnic groups. It was not uncommon for my respondents (all of whom lived in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the city) not to know the ethnic affiliation of the neighbour or friend. They were usually aware of each other's religious background, distinguishing between Muslim and non Muslim (here Russian and Mountain Jews) however exchange of ritual food or gifts as well as participation in each other celebrations was common.
I will show how ethnically and (to lesser extent) confessionally heterogeneous local communities respond to rhetorical attacks of religious and ethnic movements of various groups.
I argue that despite religious and nationalist movements trying to disturb inter-communal co-operation in pursuit of purity by, for example, attacking "non purely Muslim practices" or usage of Russian language, neighbourhood communities were able to work-out strategies of resistance: the more passive like "doing what we have done but not speaking about it" and more active like achieving a consensus on double language standard - used for example during weddings (also inter-ethnic) or local festivals (e.g. Lak culture festival) in order not to offend people from other ethnic groups with whom they can communicate only in Russian.