Negotiating a Greco-Corsican Identity

The Greek settlement in Corsica, dating from 1676, is remarkable among the colonies of its time for its very slow assimilation—a process that did not become irreversible until two centuries later, with some sense of Greek identity persisting to this day. However, while past commentators have interpreted this as indicating undying loyalty to Greece, the Greco-Corsican construction of identity has been rather more precarious. To establish how and to what extent a distinct Greco-Corsican identity was maintained, the particular historical circumstances of the colony are considered, along with its recorded attitude towards its Corsican neighbors, the continuity of its folk culture with its Greek antecedents, the conditions giving rise to its creedal identity, and the contrasting outcomes in assimilation of transplanted Greco-Corsican colonies. With this information, an account of the delay in assimilation is given in terms of Social Identity Theory, and the particular role the colonists' creed played in the formulation of their distinct identity.