When Greeks think about Turks: The View from Anthropology

by Theodossopoulos,Dimitrios

• ISBN13: 9780415400701
• ISBN10: 0415400708
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-05
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Drawing upon anthropological studies that document culturally specific ways of perceiving ethic Others in Greece and Cyprus, this book explores the cultural boundaries of the categories 'Greek' and 'Turk', and compares views on what it means to be one of these ethnic groups or both. The contributors examine the opinions of diverse social groups, such as ordinary middle-class citizens, intellectuals, army officers, children, villagers, refugees from Asia Minor, and Greek-and-Turkisj-Cypriots. They also investigate the local attitudes to international politics and highlight the contextual as opposed to immutable and essentialist meaning of evaluations about nations, such as Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, and their citizens. When Greeks think about Turkscarefully unpacks the cultural meaning of popular metaphors, stereotypes and versions of history as these are articulated in the context of discussions about the Turks in Greece. It sets the template for understanding how local perceptions of resemblance and difference provide a conceptual framework for defining and negotiating ethnic identity at the local, national and international level. It sheds valuable light on the politics of identity-making and the constitution of nationalism in Greece and Cyprus. This book was previously published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The 'Turks' in the Imagination of the 'Greeks'	p. 1
How Greeks Think: About Turks, for Example	p. 33
Tourkokratia: History and the Image of Turks in Greek Literature	p. 47
Knowledge of Diversity: Towards a More Differentiated Set of 'Greek' Perceptions of 'Turks'	p. 61
Beyond the Greek and Turkish Dichotomy: The Rum Polites of Istanbul and Athens	p. 79
Constructing 'the Turk' as an Enemy: The Complexity of Stereotypes in Children's Everyday Worlds	p. 95
Guarding Each Other's Dead, Mourning One's Own: The Problem of Missing Persons and Missing Pasts in Cyprus	p. 111
Writing about Turks and Powerful Others: Journalistic Heteroglossia in Western Thrace	p. 129
Ethnic Turks and 'Muslims', and the Performance of Multiculturalism: The Case of the Dromeno of Thrace	p. 145
Phantom Menace: What Junior Greek Army Officers Have to Say about Turks and Turkey	p. 162
Bicommunal Initiatives and their Contribution to Improved Relations between Turkish and Greek Cypriots	p. 177
Politics of friendship, worldviews of mistrust: The Greek-Turkish rapprochement in local conversation	p. 193
Notes on Contributors	p. 211
Index	p. 213
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