The Politics of Archaeology in a Divided Island (review)

316 Book Reviews McGrew’s L a n d and R evolution in M o d ern G reece, 1821 to 1871 (Ohio:State University Press) published in 1985, before most of these articles must have been written. Having said this, however, this will be a useful book for anthropologists and it does contain some particularly good individual articles. The in­ itiator of this volume, Colette Piault, deserves congratulations for having brought together a series of articles on an important and timely topic which should stimulate further research questions by anthropologists and historians. Paul Sant Cassia University of Durham. T h e P olitics o f A rch a eo lo g y in a D ivided Island. Association of Cypriot Archaeologists (1990): M u slim P laces o f w orship in C yprus. Nicosia: Association of Cypriot Archaeolo­ gists, 59 pp. ISBN: 9963-38-013-1. This is a sad little book inspite of its blatant attempt at propaganda. Published by the Association of Cypriot Archaeologists, all presumably Greek Cypriot, M u slim P laces o f w orship in C yprus is an interesting example of double-think. Purporting to describe Mosques in the southern Greek controlled part of Cyprus, the book actually has two purposes: first, to demonstrate that all or most of the significant mosques in Cyprus were actually Christian Churches - ergo the Ottomans did not contribute much that was of significant artistic and historical merit; second, and following from this, to show that whilst the Christian Greeks are actually car­ ing for Muslim places of worship in the southern part of the island (in short that there is ‘culture’ there, even to the extent of respecting different religious opinions), the Muslim Turks are by contrast desecrat­ ing Christian churches in the north. Various little phrases give the game away: the Turks are described as ‘hordes of Turks’, echoing European imagery of the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna, and a potent image for the Greeks who popularly refer to the 1974 invasion as ‘Attila’. An additional intention is to demonstrate to the Arab world (especially the Gulf states, a source of funds for the Greek Cypriot Government) that the Greek Cypriots are pro-islamic and pro-palestinian, and therefore worthy of international sup­ port. It is worthwhile remembering that in the popular Arab mind there is an equally strong resentment of the Turks, thus linking the ‘Yuneni’ (Greeks) and the Arabs. An excerpt from an article in the Kuwaiti paper A1 Quabas of 29.10.1979 is quoted to inform Arab readers that the ‘Um Haram Mosque in Larnaca is open to all the faithful’, thereby trying to preempt the equally cynical strategy by the Turkish Cypriots to exploit and present the Cyprus problem as a religious problem, which it manifestly is not. Yet this last sentence requires further qualification and exploration. Whilst the ‘Cyprus Problem’ is certainly not an overtly religious conflict, this publication concen­ trating as it does on a religious issue in a deeply insiduous way, raises two fundamental questions. The first concerns the relationship between religion and nationalism; the second concerns the implicit presuppositions that have influenced the way Greek Cypriots (and especially Greek Cypriot archaeologists) view their archaeological heritage. To begin with the relationship between Greek (especially Greek Cypriot) nationalism and religion is interesting and problematic. To a greater extent than Turkish Attaturkinspired nationalism which was profoundly secular, Greek nationalism has had a strong and semi-concealed religious component. Partly because of its early nineteenth century origins and partly because of the influence of European romanticism which helped mould Greece, the liberation of Greek speaking territories from Ottoman control had been viewed by the Greeks as a sacred crusade until the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922. The liberation of Crete in the latter part of the nineteenth century assumed in the eyes of all Greeks not only heroic proportions (of thiseia, sacrifice, itself a biblical concept), but also a liberation from Ottoman ‘darkness’ and oppression. The Orthodox church also did not subscribe to a secular view of time, and Greek nationalism was predicated upon the liberation of Ottoman controlled Book Reviews 317 territories as a means to transcend the...