The Wall

Through an anthropological analysis, this book uncovers life stories and testimonies that relate the processes of separation as a result of the constructed political borders of nation states newly founded on the inherited territories of the Ottoman Empire. As it recounts ruptured social, cultural, political, religious, and economic structures and autochthonous bonds, this work not only critically analyzes the making of the Turkish-Syrian border through an exploration of statist discourse, state practices and the state's diverse apparatuses, but further analyzes the unmaking border practices of local subjects in the light of local Kurdish people's counter perceptions, discourses, family histories, narratives, and daily practiceseach of which can be interpreted as a practice of local defiance, resilience, and adaptation in everyday life.

One of the first anthropological studies on Turkish-Syrian border, an important political borderland, in English Provides an in-depth analysis of the subjective, collective and gendered aspects of political borders Situates the Turkish-Syrian border in the light of increased attention on the border due to waves of immigrants and refugees, smuggling, transnational oppositional political movements and terrorist networks

Auteur

Ramazan Aras is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Department of Sociology at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Résumé

"The Wall is thus a welcome addition to a budding field, and will be of interest to students and scholars of Kurdish history, politics, kinship, and gender relations. The book could have benefitted, however, from better lan[1]guage and content editing to make its narrative more concise and more easily readable as a whole. ... The Wall will be of great interest for scholars of borders and nation-making in Kurdish contexts ... ." (Marlene Schäfers, Kurdish Studies Journal, Vol. 1 (1-2), December, 2023)

"The book provides a comprehensive source for readers and researchers of anthropology and political sociology, specifically interested in the theories demonstrating the interrelated and interactive nature of structure and agency such as Anthony Giddens' Structuration theory." (Ayse Isin Kirenci, Insight Turkey, Vol. 23 (1), 2021)

Contenu
Chapter 1. Introduction.-Chapter 2. Anthropology of Borders and Borderlands in Turkey.-Chapter 3. The Making .-Chapter 4. The Unmaking.-Chapter 5. The Final Phase: The Turkish Security Wall.-Chapter 6. Concluding Remarks.