Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East

Traces the history of refugees and migrants within a reconstructed twentieth-century Middle East.

Dawn Chatty (Author)

9780521817929, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 March 2010

350 pages, 2 b/w illus. 10 maps 6 tables
23.6 x 16 x 2.4 cm, 0.59 kg

'Chatty's book is an invaluable contribution.' Erik Mohns, Anthropos

Dispossession and forced migration in the Middle East remain even today significant elements of contemporary life in the region. Dawn Chatty's book traces the history of those who, as a reconstructed Middle East emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, found themselves cut off from their homelands, refugees in a new world, with borders created out of the ashes of war and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. As an anthropologist, the author is particularly sensitive to individual experience and how these experiences have impacted on society as a whole from the political, social, and environmental perspectives. Through personal stories and interviews within different communities, she shows how some minorities, such as the Armenian and Circassian communities, have succeeded in integrating and creating new identities, whereas others, such as the Palestinians and the Kurds, have been left homeless within impermanent landscapes.

Introduction: forced migration in the contemporary Middle East: community cohesion in impermanent landscapes
1. Dispossession and displacement within the contemporary Middle East: an overview of theories and concepts
2. Dispossession and forced migration in the late Ottoman Empire: distinct cultures and separated communities
3. Circassian, Chechnyan and other Muslim communities expelled from the Caucuses and the Balkans
4. The Armenians and other Christians: evictions and massacres
5. Palestinian dispossession and exodus
6. Kurds dispossessed and made stateless
7. Liminality and belonging: social cohesion in impermanent landscapes.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]