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National Identity and Belonging of Yemenite Jews in The Journey of Buried Secrets
Abstract
This article discusses the national identity of the Yemenite Jews as portrayed in Majdi Saleh’s novel The Journey of Buried Secrets . The novel, in addition to being a journey to the ancient past of Yemen, is a journey to the secret life of the Yemenite Jews as well. It is an exploration of their customs, traditions, worries, passions and identity. The writer has been able to dive deep into the depths of Yemeni society, both Muslim and Jewish, depicting the beauty of Yemen architecture, ancient inscriptions and living styles of bygone days. Saleh’s novel presents a new perspective of the Yemenite Jew, one who identifies himself with Yemen and feels proud of this attachment to the land of his birth. The article argues that Yemenite Jews have been emotionally and cognitively attached to their motherland and perceived themselves as being Yemenites belonging to the country where they were born and grew up. It asserts that such a sense of belonging is the outcome of religious tolerance and coexistence of the larger Muslim community.
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Many scholars have stressed that teaching about the past plays the major role in the formation of national, ethnic, religious, and regional identities, and intergroup perceptions and relations. This article analyzes the impact of the content of history education on several aspects of social identity, including forms, modes, and concepts of identity. Based on examples from Taiwan, Northern Ireland, North Korea, and China, the article shows that history textbooks not only create loyalties and increase salience of particular national or ethnic identity, but also play an important role in the development of the specific forms and meanings of those identities. The analysis reveals the main trends and mechanisms employed by history education in the process of forming the preferable form and concept of identity.
This paper presents two studies, conducted in two different countries, investigating perceptions of ingroups as enduring, temporally persistent entities, and introduces a new instrument measuring ‘perceived collective continuity’ (PCC). In Study 1 we show that perceptions of ingroup continuity are based on two main dimensions: perceived cultural continuity (perceived continuity of norms and traditions) and perceived historical continuity (perceived interconnection between different historical ages and events). This study also allows the construction of an internally consistent PCC scale including two subscales tapping on these two dimensions. Study 2 replicates findings from the first study; it also reveals that PCC is positively correlated to a set of social identity-related measures (e.g., group identification and collective self-esteem), and that its effects on these measures are mediated by perceived group entitativity. Overall, these two studies confirm that PCC is an important theoretical construct, and that the PCC scale may become an important instrument in future research on group processes and social identity. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The ‘double identity’ of Taiwanese as both Chinese and Taiwanese identity was measured among both general and student samples using categorical and continuous measures. As predicted, Mingnan (native province) Taiwanese were higher in Taiwanese identity whereas outside-province Taiwanese were higher in Chinese identity. Both groups shared similar representations of the history of Taiwan, but evaluations of leaders followed patterns of in-group favoritism. These representations of history were used to predict and find zero correlations between Chinese and Taiwanese identity. Taiwanese and Chinese identities were mutually compatible in cultural domains, and mediated the effect of demographic group. However, in issues concerning politicized allocation decisions (and language), Taiwanese and Chinese identity worked in opposite directions, and demographic group (and a critical evaluation of an historical leader) were significant even after controlling for identity. Implications for social identity theory, realistic group conflict theory, and the cross-straits relationship are discussed.
The subjective sense of national identity is a complex psychological structure. At the cognitive level, it involves knowledge of the existence of the national group, knowledge of the national geographical territory, knowledge of the national emblems, customs, traditions, historical events and historical figures which symbolically represent the nation, beliefs about the typical characteristics of members of the national group, and beliefs about how similar the self is to the national type. At the affective level, the sense of national identity involves a subjective sense of belonging to the national community, feelings towards the people who make up the national group, numerous social emotions such as national pride and national shame, and an emotional attachment to the national homeland. The acquisition of this complex system of knowledge, beliefs and feelings takes place over a period of many years spanning both childhood and adolescence. At the University of Surrey, we have been conducting a systematic programme of research to investigate how this subjective sense of national identity develops during the course of childhood and adolescence. In a number of studies, we have found that children are able to talk about their membership of their own national group by 5 years of age. In addition, we have found that the importance which children attribute to their national identity increases significantly between 5 and 11 years of age. The degree of perceived similarity between the self and the national type also increases between these ages. We have further found that at 5 years of age, children often feel very positively about the people who belong to their own national group, and far less positively about foreigners. However, between 5 and 11 years of age, children's descriptions of the people who belong to their own national group gradually become less positive, as they begin to ascribe more variability and more negative traits to the members of their own national group. By contrast, across this same age range, children's descriptions of the people who belong to other national groups become more positive. These findings suggest that children's preference for their own national ingroup, and their prejudice against national outgroups, are at their strongest early in middle childhood, with the strength of these biases declining as children approach adolescence. In other studies, we have examined children's knowledge of national emblems and their knowledge of national geographical territory. For example, we have explored whether national geographical knowledge is related to the sense of national identity in children. Our studies here have revealed that national geographical knowledge increases significantly between 5 and 11 years of age, and that the amount of national geographical knowledge which children acquire is indeed positively correlated with their sense of national identity. Other findings have come from two cross-national programmes of research which are being coordinated from the University of Surrey. These research programmes are being conducted in collaboration with colleagues in Scotland, Spain, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In both of these larger studies, we have collected data from children and adolescents aged between 6 and 15 years old. By using cross-cultural designs, we have been able to identify those aspects of development which remain constant irrespective of the child's sociocultural context, and those aspects which vary as a function of context. We have found that ingroup favouritism, especially in young children, is a widespread phenomenon, irrespective of culture. In addition, some of the general age trends identified in our other studies (for example, the changes in the importance which is ascribed to national identity, and the changes in the perceived similarity between the self and the national type) do occur in most groups of children; however, these general age trends are exhibited to a different extent by different groups of children, apparently as a function of the specific sociocultural context in which the children are growing up. Furthermore, these differences in the development of different groups of children typically become more pronounced during adolescence. These findings imply that the development of national identity is driven not only by the cognitive changes which occur to the way in which the child is able to conceptualise the social world at different ages, but also by social influences. Thus, many of the changes which occur between 5 and 11 years of age are probably a consequence of the child's increasing ability across this age range to conceptualise large-scale social groups such as national groups. At the same time, however, the way in which even these cognitively-driven changes are expressed within any given child is modulated and affected by the specific sociocultural setting within which the child lives. We are currently expanding the focus of our research to include not only the development of national identity but also the development of ethnic and religious identity, in order to explore how these other identities impact upon the development of national identity in children.
Differences in ingroup identification can influence the accessibility of historical memories. In Study 1, the authors examined individual differences in identity; in Study 2 they experimentally manipulated identity. In Study 1, high identifiers recalled fewer incidents of ingroup violence and hatred than did low identifiers. High and low identifiers did not differ in their recall of ingroup suffering. In Study 2, participants in the high-identity condition recalled fewer incidents of violence and hatred by members of their group than did those in the low-identity condition but a similar number of good deeds. Control participants recalled more positive than negative group actions; this bias was exaggerated in the high-identity condition and eliminated in the low-identity condition. The authors interpret the results as indicating the effects of social identity on individual-level memory processes, especially schema-consistent recall. They evaluate other explanations of the bias, including collective censorship of negative histories.
This article examines the evolving nature of national identity and its significance to geo-politics and nation-building in post-colonial African states, specifically Cameroon and Senegal. Within the current global context, previous theories and scholars failed to explain how recent changes in national identity inform the choice of geo-politics in post-colonial Cameroon and Senegal. It is against this backdrop that this article examines the extent to which changes in elite and public perception on national identity transcended national borders and spilled over to the geo-political landscape. The paper relied on a mixed-method research design that combines elements of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The mixed-method approach is anchored on comparative case study techniques. The data were largely drawn from both primary and secondary sources; the primary sources included semi-structured interviews, and public statements, while the secondary sources comprised educational curriculums, Afrobarometer, World Bank data and the Swiss Economic Globalization Index. The outcome of the analysis showed that in recent years changes in national identity have transcended national borders and spilled over to the geo-political landscape. Findings revealed the extent to which the underlying features of national identity have been indigenized, Africanized and globalized to symbolize what it means to be a Cameroonian and Senegalese Citizen. Comparatively, it was established that Senegal has assumed a more dynamic image and position in geo-politics than Cameroon. Nonetheless, Cameroon’s and Senegal’s recent dynamic and versatile image accounts for the new type of national identity theorized in this paper as a form of strategic identity. The paper also highlighted the challenges and significance of strategic identity to issues of growth, nation and peace-building.
The birthplace of the nation-state and modern nationalism at the end of the eighteenth century, Europe was supposed to be their graveyard at the end of the twentieth. Yet, far from moving beyond the nation-state, fin-de-siècle Europe has been moving back to the nation-state, most spectacularly with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia into a score of nationally defined successor states. This massive reorganisation of political space along national lines has engendered distinctive, dynamically interlocking, and in some cases explosive forms of nationalism. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu and the 'new institutionalist' sociology, and comparing contemporary nationalisms with those of interwar Europe, Rogers Brubaker provides a theoretically sophisticated and historically rich account of one of the most important problems facing the 'New Europe'.
'Imagined Communities' examines the creation & function of the 'imagined communities' of nationality & the way these communities were in part created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism & printing & the birth of vernacular languages in early modern Europe.
Arab nationalism has been one of the dominant ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa since the early twentieth century. However, a clear definition of Arab nationalism, even as a subject of scholarly inquiry, does not yet exist. Arab Nationalism sheds light on cultural expressions of Arab nationalism and the sometimes contradictory meanings attached to it in the process of identity formation in the modern world. It presents nationalism as an experienceable set of identity markers - in stories, visual culture, narratives of memory, and struggles with ideology, sometimes in culturally sophisticated forms, sometimes in utterly vulgar forms of expression. Drawing upon various case studies, the book transcends a conventional history that reduces nationalism in the Arab lands to a pattern of political rise and decline. It offers a glimpse at ways in which Arabs have constructed an identifiable shared national culture, and it critically dissects conceptions about Arab nationalism as an easily graspable secular and authoritarian ideology modeled on Western ideas and visions of modernity. This book offers an entirely new portrayal of nationalism and a crucial update to the field, and as such, is indispensable reading for students, scholars and policymakers looking to gain a deeper understanding of nationalism in the Arab world.
In this book Laszlo enhances our understanding of narrative psychology and further elaborates his narrative theory of history and identity. He offers a conceptual model that draws on diverse areas of psychology - social, political, cognitive and psychodynamics - and integrates them into a coherent whole. In addition to this conceptual contribution, he also provides a major methodological innovation: a content analytic framework and software package that can be used to analyse various kinds of historical texts and shed new light on national identity. In the second part of the book, the potential of this approach is empirically illustrated, using Hungarian national identity as the focus. The author also extends his scope to consider the potential generalizations of the approach employed.
This essay examines the sociocultural mechanisms which preserved the Jewish ethnic identity in Yemen over the centuries. The Jewish community of Yemen existed continuously as an ethnic minority for over 1,500 years, dating back to the mid-fifth century and ending with the establishment of the state of Israel, when the Jews were declared persona non grata by the Yemeni government and were forced to leave en masse in 1948 (Ratzaby 1978). © 1982, Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History. All rights reserved.
The intellectual and cultural underpinnings of present-day national identity are difficult to address directly, especially when (as so often) they involve issues of ethnicity or religion. Instead, public discussion takes place largely on the territory of national history. For decades, academic historical debates in Britain were conducted in the knowledge that they had major consequences in the public arena; but these debates were given sudden focus in 1989 by the need to frame a unified history syllabus for English schools. Our understanding of recent social change, and especially of the significance of the events of the last ten years, had now to be brought to a point. This challenge came in a context set not only by English domestic politics, but by resurgent Welsh and Scots nationalism, and by the imminent challenge of closer integration into the European Community. Thanks to this context, the three great historical schools which had dominated the nineteenth and twentieth-century mind - liberal constitutionalism, socialism and imperialism - were now clearly visible as doctrines of state formation at the same moment that we could see that each of them had disintegrated. First, according to Sir Herbert Butterfield, imperialism - 'the real Tory alternative to the organisation of English history on the basis of the growth of liberty' - had collapsed into liberal constitutionalism during the Second World War.' Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, liberal constitutionalism was largely destroyed as an explanatory framework for British politics by the Cambridge school of 'high political' history.2 Finally, from 1978, socialist historiography was profoundly compromised, partly by econometric economic history, partly by a school of thought provisionally (if unsatisfactorily) labelled 'revisionist'.3 Yet, without these three historical doctrines, we now find that we lack an equally convincing account of exactly who the British
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