Objects of legacy: Material objects of displaced people.
Item
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Title
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Objects of legacy: Material objects of displaced people.
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Identifier
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AAI3303787
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identifier
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3303787
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Creator
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Turan, Zeynep.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Setha M. Low
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Date
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2008
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social | Anthropology, Cultural | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
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Abstract
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"How is culture contained, represented, passed on, and reenacted in objects in the aftermath of displacement?" and "What is the relationship between self, personal objects, memory, and collective identity?" To address these questions, Objects of Legacy focuses on three groups, each representing a different case of dislocation as a historical consequence of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire: The "relocation" of Armenians in 1915; the "population exchange" with Greece in the 1923; and the "Nakbah" expulsion of Palestinians from the 1947-1948 war that established the State of Israel.;The dissertation is a comparative ethnographic study that uses interviews, participant observation, and relevant historical research and social science, literature, and media coverage. The focus on the personal objects of involuntarily relocated populations indicates that such objects exist at the crossroads of cultural and personal identity, and are densely invested with politics and emotion. The objects are potent touchstones to remember the past and re-tell stories of collective dislocation and ethnic cleansing. The objects are also significant elements of "facilitating environments" which nurture a person's collective identity and provide a sense of self-continuity for individuals across time and across different dimensions of the self. Objects transcend materialism when the sight of them triggers a never-ending intense memory.;For the first generation of dislocated populations, the objects from the homeland reflect the true quality of Donald Winnicott's "transitional objects." These objects help them in dealing with environmental failures after relocation. For an individual who was forced to leave his or her place of origin, the separation and the anxiety caused by this major environmental failure are akin to a child's separation from its mother. For the succeeding generations, however, the objects do not quite operate as transitional objects. These objects become the mirror image of Winnicott's transitional objects; rather than facilitating a separation, they enable a connection with an ancestral culture in diaspora. The objects become portable monuments to the memory of a culture. It is objects of this type that I am calling objects of legacy.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.