Paper short abstract:

Maps and photographs exist as narratival devices that tell complex stories. This paper examines ethno-religious minorities during the conflict in Northern Iraq during the rise of ISIS, and how visual ethnography and GIS can be used together to understand the conflict more significantly.

Paper long abstract:

As a picture speaks a thousand words, maps and photographs exist as narratival devices that tell complex stories. In areas of armed conflict, they can provide information to the outside world of where and what is being fought over. In tandem, these two devices are important to understand from both anthropological and geographical perspectives. They form a feedback loop of information that records the loss in conflict from the interpersonal and social level, whilst recording the shifting cultural and territorial boundaries associated from the geographical. This paper will use maps created during my doctoral research from Northern Iraq during the ISIS conflict 2014-2018, to understand how ethno-religious minorities can incorporate ethnic, religious, and cultural boundaries for national self-preservation. I will also use my visual ethnography research from the region, to show how photos capture delineations of cultural and religious identity, and how these identities can harden territorial boundaries during the conflict. When incorporated together, these two methodological approaches to understanding ethno-religious identity create a more holistic picture of the conflict, the peoples existing within, and their struggle to negotiate survival.