Nation-Building and Identity in Europe: The Dialogics of Reciprocity

244 Pages·2008·1.716 MB·English

by  Rodanthi Tzanelli (auth.)

Nation-Building and Identity in Europe
Also by Rodanthi Tzanelli
THE CINEMATIC TOURIST: EXPLORATIONS IN GLOBALIZATION, CULTURE
AND RESISTANCE
Nation-Building and
Identity in Europe
The Dialogics of Reciprocity
Rodanthi Tzanelli
University of Leeds, UK
© Rodanthi Tzanelli 2008
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-55199-2
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified
as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2008 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-36256-1 ISBN 978-0-230-22840-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230228405
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tzanelli, Rodanthi, 1974–
Nation-building and identity in Europe : the dialogics of reciprocity /
Rodanthi Tzanelli.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Nation-building – Greece – History – 19th century.
2. Greece – Foreign relations – Great Britain. 3. Great Britain – Foreign
relations – Greece. 4. Greece – Foreign relations – 1863–1917.
5. Great Britain – Foreign relations – 1837–1901. I. Title.
DF825.T93 2008
949.507’2–dc22 2008021566
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
For Michael Herzfeld
for his intellectual labours and endeavours
For Majid
gia pànta
Contents
List of Figures viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Europe, Nationhood and the Dialogics of Reciprocity 1
Part I Crime and Disorder 21
2 Brigands, Nationalists and Colonial Discourse 23
3 Crime, Identity and Historical Legacy 46
Part II Disciplining Identity 69
4 Anthropological Encounters 71
5 Crimes of Ethnohistory 100
Part III Ideas of Greatness 127
6 Unpaid Debts and Duties 129
7 British Patrons and Puerile Greeks: The Dialogics of 151
Self-Presentation
Conclusion 175
8 Re-Visioning Identity in Europe 177
Bibliography 189
Index 216
vii
List of Figures
Figure 5.1 Kebab-Maker (And Occasionally a Brigand) 115
T.A. (1974) Cartoon Album.Athens.
Figure 5.2 A Noble Brigand 117
Reverend J.O. Bagdon (1868) The Brigands of Morea.
London: Saunders, Otley and Co.
Figure 5.3 Bandit-Gentleman 119
Reverend H.J. Van Lennep (1862[1962])
The Oriental Album. New York: Anson D. Randolph.
Figure 5.4 A Ziebec 120
W. Cochran (1887) Pen and Pencil in Asia Minor.
London: Sampson Law.
Figure 5.5 Captain Andrea and his ‘Lieutenant’ 121
W. Cochran (1887) Pen and Pencil in Asia Minor.
London: Sampson Law.
Figure 5.6 Brigand in Albanian Holiday Costume 122
G.M.M. MacKenzie and A.P. Irby (1877) Travels in
the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe. London:
Daldy, Ibister
Figure 5.7 Types of Turkish Irregular Forces 124
W. Cochran (1877) Pen and Pencil in Asia Minor.
London: Sampson Law.
Figure 7.1 The Great Idea 157
T.A. (1974) Cartoon Album. Athens.
viii
Preface
The geographical distance I retained from the political and social
changes that took place in Greece in the last decade has certainly helped
me to better articulate the theoretical reflections on the process of
nation-building that comprise the main subject matter of this book.
Today such sociopolitical changes are related by Greeks in formulaic
complaints that stress the impact European enlargement had on Greek
culture and society, especially after the admission of foreigners into a
country that until recently was known as the global ‘guest’ (stories about
the great ‘Greek diaspora’ of Americas, Australia and Germany come to
mind) rather than the ‘host’ of the unwanted crowds of humanity
(North Africans, Albanians and Eastern Europeans, to mention but a few
recent examples). The complaints go on to outline how the umbilical
cord of European civilization has been severed: Europeans have taken all
they could from Greece’s Hellenic ancestors (ideas of democracy, philo-
sophy and beauty) and now do not care about its condition any more.
The country will now be left to lead an obscure life in one of Europe’s
dark corners, struggling with alien dangers and challenges.
It may even be suggested that by working primarily with historical
materials, I effectively managed to couple my spatial distance with a
temporal one. I am only too aware that some groups in the academic
establishment regard the disclosure of personal investment as a bizarre
occurrence and seek ways to exorcise it at any cost. The justification of
this hostility may focus upon the stylistic idiosyncrasies of discursive
disclosure: the intrusion of the ‘I’ in historical narrative is still supposed
to be discreetly hidden under piles of formal, pluralized pleasantries.
Ihave no interest in such criticisms: first of all, this is not a history book
and I do not aspire to speak as a historian of any establishment. I would
prefer to present myself as an anthropological or sociological observer
who tries to understand the historical roots of nation-building (espe-
cially that of the European margins) and relate it to the realities of global
inequalities. More importantly, however, I would argue that the stylistic
façade of any academic discourse that emanates from personal commit-
ment is inextricably linked to the commitment itself. I write this book,
not my academic alter ego.
My emerging interest in this project could be related to some incidents
that retain their triviality in the grand scheme of European politics but
ix
x Preface
acquire unequivocal significance in the context of the lived national
experience. These include my initial puzzlement when realizing that
during NATO’s bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999,
former neighbors in my hometown were rather reluctant to talk to
any foreigners who spoke a language that vaguely resembled English.
It hardly mattered to them if the ‘foreigners’ were American, British or
Australian, defenders or opponents of such aggressive policies. The
exclamation that ‘if they(apparently, foreign visitors and residents were
just a uniform whole) want to murder Serbs, then they should do the
same to the Turks’ helped me make more sense of this identity may-
hem. Coming from a place that was founded by Anatolian refugees
from the last Greek-Turkish war (1919–22), this reaction occasionally
signaled hostility based on local histories of persecution and uprooting
(though even this hostility is not a stable denominator for my com-
patriots, especially those of the second and third generation). Interest-
ingly, the expression toúrkepses! (You became a Turk and by extension
a foreigner) was often addressed by locals to me. Surely, as a student
abroad for years and then resident in the UK, I must have lost touch
with my roots and become an Evropaía.This sort of indignation mixed
withxenophobia(I was literally becoming a kséni, a guest and a stranger
at the same time) was also symptomatic of an inferiority complex I was
going to meet in historical sources. The devil of course hides in the
detail, and dismissive statements are useful details: the whole of humanity
with its perplexing diversity appears to be against Greeks; all outsiders,
irrespective of ethnicity, origins and ‘color’ should be hated, in casethey
hate the Greeks. Cultural insecurities are often translated into hostility
that becomes complicit in the creation of internal solidarity and exter-
nal destruction.
Such hostility found expression in other banal nationalist episodes: it
fuelled for example a simultaneous local and national debate on who
ought to hold the Greek flag in commemorative parades in 2000 and
again in 2003 (Greeks did not want to let children of Albanian immi-
grants do this, because they were not Greeks by birth). Emotions were
running high, and I was becoming interested in their expression. My co-
villagers led this debate with style, declaring on the walls of the local
school that ‘Hellasbelongs to the Christians’, a slogan reminiscent of the
colonels’ regime (1967–74) that tied Greek antiquity to Christian Ortho-
doxy. When on eve of the 2004 Olympic Games hosted by Athens, the
Olympic Torch was crossing the town (Friday 23 July), there was a lot
of local debate about a Greek anástasi(resurrection) – an incident com-
municated to me on the phone by relatives. Public talk about national