Faces of the State

Secularism and Public Life in Turkey
Erscheinungsjahr 2002
ISBN: 978-0-691-08845-7
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 455 g

Faces of the State is a penetrating study of the production of a state-revering political culture in the public life of 1990s Turkey. In this new contribution to the anthropology of the state, Yael Navaro-Yashin brings recent poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory to bear on the study of the political. Delving deeper than studies of nationalist discourse that would focus on consciously articulated narratives of political identity, the author explores sites of "fantasy" in the public-political domain of Istanbul.The book focuses on the conflict over secularism in the aftermath of an Islamist victory in the city's municipalities. In contrast with studies that would problematize and objectify religious movements, the author examines the agency of secularists under a state widely known for its "secularist" policies. The complexity and dynamism of the context studied moves well beyond scholarly distinctions between "secularity" and "religion," as well as "state" and "society." Here, secularism and Islamism emerge as different guises for a culture of statism where people from "society" compete to claim "Turkish culture" for themselves and their life practices. With this work that stretches the boundaries of regionalism, the author situates her anthropological study of Turkey not only in scholarship on the Middle East, but also in the broader problem of thinking "Europe" anew.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Navaro-Yashin, Yael

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Politische Ethnologie, Recht, Organisation, Identität
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Sozialpsychologie Kulturpsychologie, Ethnopsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Umwelt und Kultur, Kulturökologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Agnostizismus, Atheismus, Säkularer Humanismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Materielle Kultur, Wirtschaftsethnologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Religionsethnologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction

Semiconscious States: The Political and the Psychic in Urban Public Life 1

Entering the City 1

Secularism in Public Life 6

The Turkish Astronomer and the Little Prince 8

The Construction of "Turkish Culture" 10

"The Anthropology of Turkey" 12

The Not-Too-Native Anthropologist 13

Researching the Political 15

PART I: CULTURAL POLITICS 17

1. Prophecies of Culture: Rumor, Humor, and Secularist Projections about "Islamic Public Life" 19

"The Native" 19

Tales of Nightmare 22

Rumor or Reality? 29

The Issues at Stake 36

The Prophecy 40

Public Life and the Construction of "Local Culture" 42

2. The Place of Turkey: Contested Regionalism in an Ambiguous Area 44

"Turkey" as Sign 44

The History of "Region" 46

Beheadings in Saudi Arabia 51

Joining the Customs Union 55

The Place of Turkey 58

The Contest over "Region" 65

"The Middle Eastern Woman" 67

Undoing Area Studies 73

3. The Market for Identities: Buying and Selling Secularity and Islam 78

Consuming "Culture" 78

The Veil as a Commodity 82

Secularist Commodities 85

Istanbul's New Marketplaces 90

The Islamist Department Store 94

The Trademark of Islam 98

The Force of Symbols 107

The Market for Identities 111

PART II: STATE FANTASIES 115

4. Rituals for the State: Public Statism and the Production of "Civil Society" 117

The Soldier's Farewell 117

The Wrestler as Leviathan 122

The Flag Campaign 127

Does "Civil Society" Exist? 130

"The Transparent Reflection of Society" 137

"A Holiday of the People" 144

The Agency of "Society" 152

5. Fantasies for the State: Hype, Cynicism, and the Everyday Life of Statecraft 155

Does the "State" Exist? 155

Mundane Cynicism 166

The Truck That Crashed into the "State" 171

The Magnetism of State Crime 180

The Afterlife of the "State" 183

6. The Cult of Ataturk: The Apparition of a Secularist Leader in Uncanny Forms 188

Like a Cross That Stops the Devil. 190

"Visits to a Saint's Tomb" 191

Mystical Apparitions 193

Calling Spirits 194

Numerology 195

Statues and Idols 196

Heads of State 199

Secularist Excesses 201

Notes 205

Bibliography 231

Index 241