www.talkcyprus.org

[cypezokyli]

i would like to draw your attention on books written from a very different perspective on cyprus - that is from sociologists.

they go beyond what we usually discuss Greek Cypriots vs Turkish Cypriots, or left vs right.

this school of thought is generally neglected, nevertheless we have a number of cypriot academics that have done some serious work.

the first real scientific book that was written about cyprus came actually from a sociologist :

Peter Loizos : The greek gift, Politics in a cypriot village.

loizos visited a village between 1967-70, observing the attitudes of villagers. he stresses other things beyond left, right, enosis etc like class, literacy level, village norms, family relations, village solidarity, the need of villagers to provide for their dependants etc... and in all these villagers needed to adapt to new rules that were beyond their control - politics.

for example: people who support parties, or ideas like enosis, are viewed as people who have direct benefits in doing so, or were simply dissatisfied with them not receiving those benefits.

its an excellent book, that i would propose to everyone to read.

...........

the new generation of cypriot academics conctinues the tradition of peter loizos. here is a book which contains a series of essays from different academics. each one has published their own books, and here one can get a taste of what they are doing

Modernity, History and an Island in Conflict
av Yiannis Papadakis / Nicos Peristianis / Gisela Welz

(a book from yiannis papadakis :echos from the dead zone has already been proposed here - also excellent book !)


it includes the following chapters :

Quote: ntroduction Modernity, History, and Conflict in Divided Cyprus: An Overview Yiannis Papadakis, Nicos Peristianis, Gisela Welz;
1. Transforming Lives: Process and Person in Cypriot Modernity Michael Herzfeld;

2. On the Condition of Postcoloniality in Cyprus Rebecca Bryant;

3. Disclosure and Censorship in Divided Cyprus: Towards an Anthropology of Ethnic Autism Yiannis Papadakis;

4. De-ethnicizing the Ethnography of Cyprus: Political and Social Conflict between Turkish-Cypriots and Settlers from Turkey Yael Navaro-Yashin;

5. Cypriot Nationalism, Dual Identity, and Politics Nicos Peristianis;

6. Children Constructing Ethnic Identities in Cyprus Spyros Spyrou;

7. "Contested Natures": An Environmental Conflict in Cyprus Gisela Welz;

8. Gardens and the Nature of Rootedness in Cyprus Anne Jepson;

9. Researching Society and Culture in Cyprus: Displacements, Hybridities, and Dialogical Frameworks Floya Anthias;

10. Recognition and Emotion: Exhumations of Missing Persons in Cyprus Paul Sant Cassia;

11. Postscript: Reflections on an Anthropology of Cyprus Vassos Argyrou


in this one should not forget books about nationalism by two other cypriot proffesors caisar mavratsas , and niyazi Kızılyürek

[repulsewarrior]

I studied Political Economics in that era, and was taught by one of the great Cooperators, still living amongst us. Being of Cypriot origin I knew that within our own Rural economies the lives of each living member had been intertwined through generations of sharing their work and maximising the results from the economies of scale.

At one point, these people, the island dwellers, lived in the most Socialised country in the world.

How would you like to be called, coming from a mixed village, which implies 'pure' villages, when the case was that we all lived together, as island dwellers....isolated from the rest of the world, we sustained ourselves. Even the identity, with Islam, or our own Orthodox Church, we were united from their beginning, in the belief for this one God. We were all the same, and we had a reason to love one another.

This is the subtle change brought with the Modern Age, mobility, and urbain living, as well as the occupation, this closeness to each other, and the land, as stewards, is lost, even if some people tend to some of the trees.

Humanity suffers, unless, truly, there is a Right of Return, and if in Cyprus, there is a passion for Freedom, which embraces revolutionary changes, such as Bi-Zonality (which does not mean two parts), as well as a Republic of Cyprus, which is bi-cameral, having a Constitution which charters two (or three) National Assemblies to be sovereign in the affairs of their population, being Bi-Communal.

I would vote for the person who put us first as people, part of a larger family of Mankind, with dignity and respect for each other, before our identity as a mixed villager, a Greek, or a Turk.