Looking at the House from Inside: The Processes of Constructing Group Identity Amongst Greek-Cypriots
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Abstract
This article discusses Turkish-Greek-Cypriot relations from a social anthropological point of view. More precisely, it discusses the processes by which Greek Cypriots construct collective identity as Cypriots involving the exclusion of the Turks from mainland Turkey and the inclusion of the Turkish-Cypriots into the group defined as insiders. I argue that these processes leading to the construction of social boundaries are based on culturally shared notions such as religion and the house which are discussed in detail. Those (the Turks) who violate Greek-Cypriot cultural notions are perceived as outsiders, while those (the Turkish-Cypriots) who do not, are regarded as insiders. I argue further that it is misleading to use the concept of ethnicity as a general and universal frame of reference in the analysis of collective identity.
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Keywords
Turkish-Cypriots, Greek-Cypriots, group identity, ethnicity
References
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Levi-Strauss and Beyond. Cambridge: CUP.
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Du Boulay, Juliet, (1986). "Women - Images of Their Nature and Destiny in Rural Greece." In Dubisch (ed.). Gender and Power in Rural Greece. Princeton, New
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Dubisch, Jill, (1993). "Foreign Chickens and Other Outsiders: Gender and Community in Greece." In American Ethnologist, May 1993, vol. 20, no. 2: 272-287.
Elwert, Georg, (1989). "Nationalismus, Ethnixitat und Nativismus -" uber die Bildung von Wir-Gruppen. In Waldmann and Elwert (eds.) Ethnixitat im Wandel.
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Horowitz, Donald L., (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
lossifides, Marina A., (1991). "Sisters in Christ: Metaphors of Kinship among Greek Nuns." In: Loizos and Papataxiarchis (eds.) Contested Identities. Gender and
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Kitromilides, Paschalis M., (1955). World Bibliographies. Cyprus. Oxford: Clio Press.
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Loizos, Peter, (1975b). "Changes in Property Transfer among Greek Cypriot Villagers." In Man 10(4): 503-523.
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Loizos, Peter, (1977b). "Argaki: the Uprooting of a Cypriot Village." In Attalides 1977: Cyprus Review. Nicosia.
Loizos, Peter, (1978 (1976)). "An Alternative Analysis:" In Cyprus. Published by the Minority Rights Group. Report no. 30.
Loizos, Peter, (1981). The Heart Grown Bitter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Loizos, Peter, (1988). "lntercommunal Killing in Cyprus." In Man 23: 639-53.
Loizos, Peter and Papataxiarchis, Evthymios, (1991). Introduction. In Loizos and Papataxiarchis (eds.) Contested Identities. Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece. Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Maratheftis, Antonios, I., (1989). (unpublished Ph.D. thesis): 'Den ksechno', I do not forget: The Greek Cypriot refugee experience is oral narrative. The University of Texas at Austin.
Markides, Kyriacos, (1974). "Social Change in the Rise and Decline of Social Movements: The Case of Cyprus." In American Ethnologist i,ol. 1, no 2, May 1974: 309-330.
Markides, Kyriacos C.; Nikita, Eleni S.; Rangou, Elengo N., (1978). Social Change in a Cypriot Village. Nicosia: Zavallis Press.
Pavlides Eleftherios and Hesser Jana, (1986). "Women's Roles and House Form and Decoration in Eressos, Greece." In Dubisch (ed.) Gender and Power in Rural Greece. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Peristiany, J.G., (1965). "Honour and Shame in a Cypriot Village." In Peristiany (ed.): Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
Peristiany, J.G., (1968). "Introduction to a Cyprus Highland Village." In: Peristiany, J.G. (ed.) Contributions to Mediterranean Sociology. Paris, the Hague: Mouton and Co.
Peristiany, J.G., (1976). "Anthropological, Sociological, and Geographical Fieldwork in Cyprus." In: Dimen and Friedl, (1976) (eds.) Regional Variation in Modern Greece and Cyprus: Towards a Perspective on the Ethnography of Greece. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 268:345-354.
Peristiany, J.G., (1992). "The sophron - a secular saint? Wisdom and the wise in a Cypriot community." In Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers (ed.) Honor and Grace in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peristiany, J.G. and Pitt-Rivers, J., (1992). Introduction. In Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers (eds.) Honor and Grace in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roussou, Maria, (1985). "Systeme dotal et identite feminine dans la campagne cypriote." In Piault, Colette (ed.) Familles et biens en Grece et a Chypre. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan.
Roussou, Maria, (1986). 'War in Cyprus: Patriarchy and the Penelope Myth." In Ridd and Callaway (eds.) Caught Up in Conflict. Women's Responses to Political Strife. London: MacMillan.
Sant Cassia, Paul, (1982). "Property in Greek Cypriot Marriage Strategies, 1920- 1980." In Man, vol. 17, no. 1: 643-663
Stamatakis, Nicholas A., (1994). History, Language and National Rituals: The Construction of Modern Greek-Cypriot Identity. State University of New York. (unpublished Ph.D. thesis).
Δεν ξεχνώ και αγωνίζομε, 1993 (1992). Για τη Γ’ και Δ’ τάξη του Δημοτικού Σχολείου: Λευκωσία: Υπουργείο Παιδείας Κύπρου.
Astuti, Rita, (1995). People of the Sea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Attalides, Michael, (1976). "Changing Configurations of Greek Cypriot Kinship." In: Peristiany (ed.). Kinship and modernization in Mediterranean society. Rome:
Centre for Mediterranean Studies.
Attalides, Michael, (1977). "Forms of Peasant Incorporation in Cyprus During the Last Century." In Gellner, Ernest and Waterbury, John (eds.) Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies. London: Duckworth.
Barth, Fredrik, (1969). Introduction. In Barth, F. (ed.) Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organisation of Cultural Difference. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.
Beckingham, C.T., (1957). "The Turks of Cyprus." In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. vol. 87, part II: 165-74.
Carsten, Janet and Hugh-Jones, Stephan, (1995). Introduction: About the house - Levi-Strauss and beyond. In: Carsten and Hugh-Jones (eds.) About the House.
Levi-Strauss and Beyond. Cambridge: CUP.
Chapman, Malcolm, McDonald, Maryon and Tonkin, Elizabeth, (1989). Introduction. In Tonkin, McDonald and Chapman (eds.) (1989). History and Ethnicity. London: Routledge.
Du Boulay, Juliet, (1986). "Women - Images of Their Nature and Destiny in Rural Greece." In Dubisch (ed.). Gender and Power in Rural Greece. Princeton, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Du Boulay, Juliet, (1991). "Cosmos and Gender in Village Greece." In Loizos and Papataxiarchis (eds.) Contested Identities. Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Dubisch, Jill, (1986). "Culture Enters through the Kitchen: Women, Food and Social Boundaries in Rural Greece." In Dubisch (ed.) Gender and Power in Rural
Greece. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Dubisch, Jill, (1993). "Foreign Chickens and Other Outsiders: Gender and Community in Greece." In American Ethnologist, May 1993, vol. 20, no. 2: 272-287.
Elwert, Georg, (1989). "Nationalismus, Ethnixitat und Nativismus -" uber die Bildung von Wir-Gruppen. In Waldmann and Elwert (eds.) Ethnixitat im Wandel.
Saarbrucken, Fort Lauderdale: breitenbach.
Hadjipavlou-Trigeorgis, Maria, (1994). "Der Mensch im Zypernkonglikt." In: Liebe, Klaus (ed.) (1994) Zypern. Der "vergessene" europaische Konflikt. Koln: Romiosini.
Horowitz, Donald L., (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
lossifides, Marina A., (1991). "Sisters in Christ: Metaphors of Kinship among Greek Nuns." In: Loizos and Papataxiarchis (eds.) Contested Identities. Gender and
Kinship in Modern Greece. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Just, Roger, (1989). ''Triumph of the Ethnos." In Tonkin, McDonald, Chapman (eds.) History and Ethnicity. London and. New York: Routledge.
King, Russel and Ladbury, Sarah, (1982). "The Cultural Reconstruction of Political Reality: Greek and Turkish Cyprus Since 1974." In: Anthropological
Quarterly 55: 1-16.
Kitromilides, Paschalis M., (1955). World Bibliographies. Cyprus. Oxford: Clio Press.
Kyrris, Costas, (1977). Peaceful Co-existence in Cyprus under British Rule (1878-1959) and After Independence: An Outline. Nicosia.
Linnekin, Jocelyn and Poyer, Lin, (1990). Introduction. In: Linnekin and Poyer (eds.): Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in the Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press.
Loizos, Peter, (1974). ''The Progress of Greek Nationalism in Cyprus, 1878-1970." In Davies, F. (ed.) Choice and Change. LSE Monographs no. 50. London:
Athone Press.
Loizos, Peter, (1975a). The Greek Gift. Politics in a Cypriot Village. Oxford: Blackwell.
Loizos, Peter, (1975b). "Changes in Property Transfer among Greek Cypriot Villagers." In Man 10(4): 503-523.
Loizos, Peter, (1976). "Notes on Future Anthropological Research on Cyprus. In Dimen and Friedl 1976 (eds.) Regional Variation in Modern Greece and Cyprus: Toward a Perspective on the Ethnography of Greece. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 268: 355-61.
Loizos, Peter, (1977a). "Politics and Patronage in a Cypriot Village, 1920-1970." In GelIner and Waterbury (eds.) Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies. London: Duckworth.
Loizos, Peter, (1977b). "Argaki: the Uprooting of a Cypriot Village." In Attalides 1977: Cyprus Review. Nicosia.
Loizos, Peter, (1978 (1976)). "An Alternative Analysis:" In Cyprus. Published by the Minority Rights Group. Report no. 30.
Loizos, Peter, (1981). The Heart Grown Bitter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Loizos, Peter, (1988). "lntercommunal Killing in Cyprus." In Man 23: 639-53.
Loizos, Peter and Papataxiarchis, Evthymios, (1991). Introduction. In Loizos and Papataxiarchis (eds.) Contested Identities. Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece. Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Maratheftis, Antonios, I., (1989). (unpublished Ph.D. thesis): 'Den ksechno', I do not forget: The Greek Cypriot refugee experience is oral narrative. The University of Texas at Austin.
Markides, Kyriacos, (1974). "Social Change in the Rise and Decline of Social Movements: The Case of Cyprus." In American Ethnologist i,ol. 1, no 2, May 1974: 309-330.
Markides, Kyriacos C.; Nikita, Eleni S.; Rangou, Elengo N., (1978). Social Change in a Cypriot Village. Nicosia: Zavallis Press.
Pavlides Eleftherios and Hesser Jana, (1986). "Women's Roles and House Form and Decoration in Eressos, Greece." In Dubisch (ed.) Gender and Power in Rural Greece. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Peristiany, J.G., (1965). "Honour and Shame in a Cypriot Village." In Peristiany (ed.): Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
Peristiany, J.G., (1968). "Introduction to a Cyprus Highland Village." In: Peristiany, J.G. (ed.) Contributions to Mediterranean Sociology. Paris, the Hague: Mouton and Co.
Peristiany, J.G., (1976). "Anthropological, Sociological, and Geographical Fieldwork in Cyprus." In: Dimen and Friedl, (1976) (eds.) Regional Variation in Modern Greece and Cyprus: Towards a Perspective on the Ethnography of Greece. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 268:345-354.
Peristiany, J.G., (1992). "The sophron - a secular saint? Wisdom and the wise in a Cypriot community." In Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers (ed.) Honor and Grace in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peristiany, J.G. and Pitt-Rivers, J., (1992). Introduction. In Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers (eds.) Honor and Grace in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roussou, Maria, (1985). "Systeme dotal et identite feminine dans la campagne cypriote." In Piault, Colette (ed.) Familles et biens en Grece et a Chypre. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan.
Roussou, Maria, (1986). 'War in Cyprus: Patriarchy and the Penelope Myth." In Ridd and Callaway (eds.) Caught Up in Conflict. Women's Responses to Political Strife. London: MacMillan.
Sant Cassia, Paul, (1982). "Property in Greek Cypriot Marriage Strategies, 1920- 1980." In Man, vol. 17, no. 1: 643-663
Stamatakis, Nicholas A., (1994). History, Language and National Rituals: The Construction of Modern Greek-Cypriot Identity. State University of New York. (unpublished Ph.D. thesis).
Δεν ξεχνώ και αγωνίζομε, 1993 (1992). Για τη Γ’ και Δ’ τάξη του Δημοτικού Σχολείου: Λευκωσία: Υπουργείο Παιδείας Κύπρου.
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“Looking at the House from Inside: The Processes of Constructing Group Identity Amongst Greek-Cypriots”. 2018. Cyprus Review 9 (2): 41-56. https://cyprusreview.org/index.php/cr/article/view/499.