Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork conducted in the last three year in South Lebanon and by reference to a summer 2013 case of inter-religious transaction in a Christian area, this paper aim to shed lights on the increasing dichotomy between the consociational national level and the highly sectarian local level.

Paper long abstract:

Although a limited number of mixed rural and urban areas still exist, Muslim and Christian Lebanese communities increasingly maintain their homogeneity in spacial terms by excluding others from buying land or property within their communities. The trend is particularly strong within Christian communities of all denominations because of their limited demographic size. A sense of religious affiliation with the land is thus developed so that it becomes part of a communal heritage that precludes the sale of any land to other religious groups, and sometimes even to members of different Christian denominations. Separation is also becoming traditionally fixed and determined in a way it was not before.

Based on fieldwork and intensive interviews conducted in the last three year in South Lebanon and by specific reference to a Summer 2013 case of inter-religious transaction in a Christian area, this paper aim to shed lights on the increasing dichotomy between the consociational national level and the highly sectarian local level. By looking at the way religion acts as a surrogate of ethno-nationalism, the inter-religious property transaction case study will help to understand how local control was defied and customary local rules based on community self-control jeopardized.