Memory and Social Identity among Syrian Orthodox ChristiansSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/XIUDV34Z/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.NorikoSatoMemory and Social Identity among Syrian Orthodox Christianshttp://syriaca.org/cbss/XIUDV34Zhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/XIUDV34Zhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/XIUDV34Z2001The massacre of Christians in Turkey and their subsequent expulsion at the end of the Ottoman Empire created fear and hatred between the various ethnic groups which have lasted to this day. Syrian Orthodox Christians who were expelled from Turkey are unable to construct their own nation state. Religion (Christianity) separates Syrian Christians from the nation state of Syria to which they were exiled.
This thesis examines the relationship between memory and identity of these Christians and explores the interrelationship of three aspects: 1.) how these Christians have erased memories of their close relationship with their Muslim neighbours in Turkey; 2.) how they have elaborated orally their recent past to emphasise their unity and continuity in faith, though this is contested by other evidence, both literate and oral and, 3.) how they have developed a whole new formal history for themselves based upon the supposed transmission of tradition and language of ancient Christians in Syria from whom they are claiming descent.
Their present anxiety is of their community in the region becoming extinct. Therefore, they have turned increasingly to manufacturing a past so as to create a safe ethnic identity. These Christians have turned towards classical Syriac which had a very restricted use in the past, into not just their liturgical language, but to fashion the ideological foundations onto which to base their claims as the descendants of the original inhabitants of Syria, instead of justifying their 'rootlessness' and being content with the concept of a 'hybridic' identity. They attempt to prove that their community has had an enduring existence in this locality and to confirm their right to the land, even through this is contested by the evidence of their refugee origin.
Sato, Noriko. “Memory and Social Identity among Syrian Orthodox Christians.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Durham, 2001.
Noriko Sato, Memory and Social Identity among Syrian Orthodox Christians (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Durham, 2001).JacobitesMaryMuslim-Christian relationsOttoman empireXIX-XXI CEXX CEethnicityfamilygenocideidentitymarriagememorymiraclesmusicsinging