Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History, and an Island in Conflict (review)

It is rare to find a novel and challenging work on the Cyprus problem that does not try to be either didactic or totalizing. Yet, such is Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History and an Island in Conflict, which makes it all the more refreshing. In it, the Cypriot people are brought to life and it is made clear that their multiple commitments and priorities are of their own making. If commitment to federalism is the underlying principle that will bridge the island's multiple divides, so is the book's coherence, variety of topics, comprehensiveness, and depth of articulation. Cyprus is shown to be a place and life-space where people raise their children, migrants work and demand their rights together with the natives, and issues of environmental concern affect everyone, including the reader.

This volume is the product of a 2001 conference, held under the auspices of the University of Cyprus and Intercollege entitled, "A Critical Appraisal of Anthropological Research in Cyprus." Dedicated to Peter Loizos, a key figure in what may be called "the anthropology of Cyprus," the anthology constitutes a critical reappraisal of his seminal work in political anthropology and social relations on the island. As such, it is a welcome addition to other interdisciplinary volumes on Cyprus. In many ways, Divided Cyprus is revisionist, at odds with the dominant model based on a victimized ethnic Self/Other. It demythologizes the past and provides alternative ways of conceptualizing tradition and modernity, including Cyprus's historicized political predicament as a "divided political state." Various authors illuminate different aspects of the Cyprus problem, including modernity, nationalisms and interethnic relations, membership in the European Union, migration, and tourism.

In a chapter on Cypriot modernity, Michael Herzfeld reassesses the empirical and epistemological relevance of key anthropological debates, including the analysis of kinship norms, friendship, and inter-communal violence as features of Mediterranean cultures that often grow out of proportion and become tragic tales, demanding a novel interpretation of people's lives. Rebecca Bryant focuses on post-colonialism and uses empirical data on Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot attitudes toward education by comparing the period of British colonial rule with that of independence. By using contrasting attitudes of Turkish and Greek Cypriots on male/female education, she finds an incommensurable value assessment concerning what constitutes "civilization" on each side of the border. For Greek Cypriots, it is the return to a Hellenized and, therefore, Westernized past whereas educated Turkish elites have mounted a fight against reactionary conservatism. Ironically, both attitudes were cultivated under British colonialism.

Nicos Peristianis argues that Cypriot nationalism involves a dual national identity predicated on local politics. He contrasts Greek Cypriot to Turkish Cypriot ethnonationalism and finds that civic nationalism in Cyprus is wanting. His hypothesis, based on identifying a space for civic nationalism in Cyprus in an earlier historical period (1920s), is a promising idea. Yet one wonders in what sense either Greeks or Turks could be thinking in civic nationalist terms under British rule, as this idea would be theoretically incompatible with colonialism. Thus, even if one agrees with his typology of nationalisms, the use of these categories appears anachronistic. Navarro Yashin shifts the ethnographic lens to the sub-national, intra-ethnic level by examining the northern Cypriot context where Cypriot Turks and Turkish settlers from the mainland interact. From the north Cypriot perspective, the construction of a national narrative includes an underlying tension between the newcomers/settlers and the locals (Turkish Cypriots) who compete at the intra-regional level. She finds a plurality of "Turkishness" in northern Cyprus which remains irreducible to the Greek versus Turk polarity adopted by national and international analysts over the years.

In his proposal for an anthropology of "ethnic autism" in Cyprus, Yiannis Papadakis uses the concept of the "Dead Zone" as a heuristic device, suggesting a common, neutral space between the two ethno-national sides. His own research over the years has shown that a compatibility of voices...