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- Convenors:
-
Marcello Mollica
(University of Messina)
James Dingley (Queen’s University of Belfast)
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- Track:
- Survival and Extinction
- Location:
- University Place 4.207
- Sessions:
- Thursday 8 August, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Memory & conflict play a role in creating ethnic identity. Postmodern ideas advocate the maintaining of different identities whilst classical social science suggest the opposite. How are memories constructed? What is the role of religion? These questions are vital to appreciate segregation.
Long Abstract:
Both memory and conflict play fundamental roles in the creation, maintenance and passing on of ethnic identity and are often interlinked, e.g. memory of past conflicts. This may be a good thing in terms of identity and culture whilst at the same time being a bad thing in terms of maintaining old enmities and fuelling new conflicts. Post modern ideas such as multi-culturalism tend to be strong advocates of maintaining different identities and suggest that they can be quite compatible with peaceful co-existence, whilst classical social science tended to suggest the opposite. Meanwhile different identities, with their different memories, and their maintenance are also frequently associated with both segregation and conflict. How are memories constructed? How does memory influence conflict? Does segregation play an important role in maintaining and fuelling conflict? Is it necessary for the maintenance of ethnic memory? Do separate memories fuel conflicts and segregation? How do they relate to economic interests and imperatives? What is the role of religion in these things? Is there a need to construct single identities and memories for conflict resolution? These and other related questions are vital to understand if we are better appreciate not simply the causes of segregation but also the role it plays in conflict and/or peaceful co-existence.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 8 August, 2013, -Paper short abstract:
This paper looks at dynamics of intra- and inter-group conflicts and their contribution to the construction of the Molokan ethnic identity in Ivanovka.
Paper long abstract:
Throughout its conflicts with the Orthodox Church, Molokanism, historically embedded in Russian peasantry, has given rise to an ethno-religious community known as Molokan. It may be asserted that different and opposing religious and denominational propensities from Russia served as an ideological vehicle in the process of identity-formation. Religious differences that played an important role in the formation of a Molokan identity as against the Russian Orthodox one are continuing to serve as an important ideological tool in face of the Muslim "others", who are newcomers in Ivanovka, within the Ismailly department of Azerbaijan. The transactionalist approach views the religious and denominational differences as border markers that differentiate and distance ethnicities. This paper looks at dynamics of intra- and inter-group conflicts and their contribution to the construction of the Molokan ethnic identity in Ivanovka.
Paper short abstract:
The aim of this research paper is to see how the people of the Musa Mountain, and their own image, as related to Armenia, are defined as an ethno-religious identity by reference to other ethnic groups, that are, similarities and dissimilarities that constitute the border between them and the others.
Paper long abstract:
This paper builds upon data collected through interviews with members of the Christian Armenian community and their representatives in the Province of Antioch (Hatay), Eastern Turkey, where their social, economic and daily life takes place. I shall precisely focus on the people of Vakıflı, Hatay Province, being the only Armenian town in Turkey. The aim of this research paper is to see how the people, and their own image, as related to Armenia, are defined as an ethno-religious identity by reference to other ethnic groups, the similarities and dissimilarities that constitute the border between them and the others. Like the Musa Mountain on which Vakıflı stands on, it has both an historical and symbolic meaning for Armenian identity: the identity of the town encapsulates the effects of both the symbolic construction and reproduction of the Mountain.
Paper short abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to explore the different concepts of scholasticism and scientific philosophy as foundations for cultural traditions that have hardened into ethnic identities
Paper long abstract:
Collective memory is vital to the development and maintenance of any identity, it gives us place, time and being in the cosmos, maps out our past, present and future, brings structure and order to our lives and makes them meaningful and purposeful. However, memory can be a two edged sword, it can provide men with a springboard to the future, a trajectory that impels them forward or it can become something that ties one to the past and prevents men from developing and moving forward. In Ireland memory has played a significant part in maintaining a past that is largely negative in terms of the 'other' and in terms of developing and moving forward, to embrace modernity and overcome old cleavages. This is due to the dominant cultural ethos in the religious traditions, i.e. scholasticism, which emphasises references to the past as prime sources of authority and legitimacy, not present based or future orientated knowledge and learning, as in science. The failure to develop a scientific culture in Ireland and the dominance of a scholastic based culture has meant a constant re-fighting of past battles and a failure to move on. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explore the different concepts of scholasticism and scientific philosophy as foundations for cultural traditions that have hardened into ethnic identities and to examine how they have influenced folk memory and attitudes to the other, thus leading to partition and the continuing 'troubles' in Northern Ireland.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on my multi-sited ethnography in Christian Lebanese enclaves, this paper addresses the determinants that might convince Christians to accept post-conflicts deeds (i.e. acts of self-immolation)
Paper long abstract:
Recent multi-ethnic Lebanese history has been marked by increased tension between sectarian groups and sectarian groups and the state. In many cases groups' resistance developed into an attempt to limit the action of both, other groups and the central authority of the state by developing alternative, even trans-national, loyalties. However, this did not apply to all groups. However, not all state and ethno-religious groups failed to develop a positive dialogue.
Drawing on my multi-sited ethnography in Christian Lebanese enclaves, this paper looks at what influences Christians to accept or condone acts in a post-conflict situation, e.g. self-immolation or suicide bombers, that in principle they would otherwise reject. The issue is made manifest where Christian communities are minorities and where Muslim majorities offer the memory of their martyrs as a strategy of self-defence against external aggressors, e.g. Israel. The questions, therefore, arise: Could a martyrdom ideological succession exist and how would it fit political agendas in a consociational democracy? Or, rather, can the acceptance of other martyrs be instrumental to conflict prevention?
Paper short abstract:
Informed by the analysis of performed storytelling in post conflict Northern Ireland, this paper explores how stories from ‘below’ can act as both a challenge to hegemonic narratives of history and to the way that memories are passed on.
Paper long abstract:
Since - and despite - the peace agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998, it seems that the political vision of identity pluralism for the post-conflict society is still reduced to a 'two communities' model that results in demands for 'equality' on a tit-for-tat level.
By investigating how, through publicly portrayed narratives of life during the conflict and its aftermath, it may be possible to bring to light stories that have been left untold or hidden in favour of a collective politicised and official memory, this paper discusses to what extent these stories can be a means to challenge a preservation of collective memory that perpetuates an 'us and them' mentality. My analyses are based on ethnographic research on two community drama projects that used the tool of real life storytelling transformed into public performance. Participant observation, interviewing and documentation of the projects allow me to take into account the interdependency between private and public meaning and consider aspects of ownership, agency and power discourses as well as issues of 'truth' and possible (ethical) challenges through this process of displaying one's own experiences to a public space. My research is also looking at in how far the concept of embodied memories responds to John Paul Lederach's call (2005) for a moral imagination that empowers us to imagine and create new stories that help redefine collective identity by acknowledging the past but recognising that every historically developed social form is in fluid movement in which multiple realities are possible.