Greekworks.com on the Diaspora
Lots of interesting reading at Greekworks.com, including articles on the Diaspora.
The construction of identity in diasporic communities is motivated by two major impulses/desires. The first seeks an identity related to a homeland that will impart strong cultural, historical, and racial roots to the diasporic community. This form of identity requires a strong connection between center/homeland and periphery/diaspora. The second seeks an identity that imparts cultural roots to the diasporic community but at the same time remains autonomous from a homeland, and consequently from a “territorially bounded nation.”.... [But] whether constructing an identity in relation to a homeland or in opposition to/autonomy from one, diasporic communities remain closed communities characterized by both exclusionary and inclusive mechanisms.
The construction of identity in diasporic communities is motivated by two major impulses/desires. The first seeks an identity related to a homeland that will impart strong cultural, historical, and racial roots to the diasporic community. This form of identity requires a strong connection between center/homeland and periphery/diaspora. The second seeks an identity that imparts cultural roots to the diasporic community but at the same time remains autonomous from a homeland, and consequently from a “territorially bounded nation.”.... [But] whether constructing an identity in relation to a homeland or in opposition to/autonomy from one, diasporic communities remain closed communities characterized by both exclusionary and inclusive mechanisms.
posted by kathryn at Sunday, March 06, 2005
2 Comments:
How interesting that you shoud discuss this just when I attended the annual dinner of the American Hellenic Council (I blogged about it). But I think this essential tension of a diaspora is what makes it interesting. For example, the church plays a far greater role in the life of the diasporic community as compared to what the status of the church is in contemporary Greece.
Yeah, the Church did/does play a major role in the Diaspora. The Church has been the body that has sought to preserve the religious and cultural identity of Greece, as perceived by the Church, of course. I was reading an interesting article in the Journal of Hellenic Diaspora (Vol. 30.1 2004) by Constantine Danopoulos who analyzes Church-State relations and basically says that the Church believes that the major threat facing the Greek nation today is the "corrosion of religious and cultural identity". He says that the Church links national security with "the search for identity". Case in point: the ID fiasco in 2000.
I need to pop by your blog and read your post on the annual dinner....
Thanks again for stopping by!
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