Cultural and Structural Factors Flashcards
What is the debate outlined by Esman and Rabinovic?
- primoridalism and instrumentalism
- primordialists believe in rooted given identites as a major of ethnicity and politics
- instrumentalists appreciate a more subjective construction of identity
What does Anthony Smith refer to ethnic groups as?
-A type of cultural collectivity that emphasizes the role of myths of descent and historical memories and is recognised by one or more cultural differences
How did the colonial powers use religion? and example of this? (Milton-Edwards)
as part of a divide and rule agenda
-In Syria and Lebanon the French actively pursued a policy of divide and rule among the Druze and Maronite Christian community
What similar problem did independent states face? (Milton-Edwards)
creating new identities in territorial units under which a variety of distinct ethnic or other groupings co-exist
Kurds case study (Milton-Edwards)
- Largest ethnic group following arabs and persians
- minority population in all states they cover, 23% in Turkey, 23% in Iraq, 10% in Iran and 8% in Syria
- Ataturk allowed no room for competing ideologies eg mountain kurds
- Struggle for independence has taken the form of both political means eg HDP and armed resistance eg PKK
Alawites of Syria case study (Milton-Edwards)
- The Alawites, a shia sect, constitute 15% of the population
- Alawites have persued an assimilationist agenda
- Alawaites prominent in armed forces, eventually coming to dominance purging sunni and druze officers and then enduring a power struggle
- however assimilation has created tensions between alawites and other minorities and alawites and sunni majority
- 40 years of alawite dominated rule of the baath party has created tensions
Maspero massacre case study (Sedra)
-October 9-10 2011 Maspero massacre, nearly 30 Egyptians almost all of them Coptic lost their lives at hands of army and security personnel as they gathered at Egyptian radio and television union building
What was the Millet partnership? (Sedra)
Coptic patriarch would back president in the political sphere in exchange for state recognition of the patriarch as the sole legit representative of coptic community
-allowed coptic patriarch to build walls around coptic community
“average person in the Middle East…” (Bill and Springbourg)
-Average person in the ME belongs to a range of groups
What is the dominant group structure in the ME? (Bill and Springbourg)
-The informal group
What is a Shilla? (Bill and Springbourg)
-In Egypt, a group of 2-12 members who socialize together and who work to help one another advance politically and economically
Where does the politics of Bahrain take place? (Bill and Springbourg)
in a network of clubs and societies numbering around 100, these groups have a membership which includes much of Bahrain’s elite
Example of informal groups active in power? (Bill and Springbourg)
- In Lebanon, the Za’im is an informal groups leader whose followers support him
- in 1982 Bashir Gemayel, the president elect, was assassinated his brother replaced him, suggesting the strength of these ties
What is the basic unit and building block of groups in the ME (Bill and Springbourg)
-The family
How are women crucial in the ME? (Bill and Springbourg)
crucial in the informal sphere, women are important political forces because of their critical position as personal nodes in the webs of informal relationships
-roles as a mother and wife of ones of strategic political importance throughout Islamic history
