The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> culture, identity and the native critic

culture, identity and the native critic
Posted by Warrior Empress (Guest) - Friday, December 5 2003, 3:50:46 (EST)
from 62.114.43.19 - 62.114.43.19 - Windows XP - Internet Explorer
Website:
Website title:

Dear Friends,

A few of the points raised in this post and in others (specifically Tiglath's 'White Man' post have inspired me to share a few ideas with you. I'm no scholar, and have a while to go before I do my PhD, but I have learnt a few things on the way which I feel are valuable in sharing.

Farid, your thoughts on different 'strands' of Assyrianism are a true observation you have made (guess there's a social anthropologist in all of us?). Culture is an ever-evolving entity. It is shaped by the living organisms who live it everyday and who define it. In a sense, culture is perpetually redefined and this is the only way we can approach it.

In Sydney (where I originally hail from) we have various Assyrian and Chaldean cultures and sub-sultures and everyone is trying to redefine it for themselves. The younger generations are told that if they don't speak Assyrian they are no Assyrian. If they are not Christians they are not 'real' Assyrians. And you are DEFINATELY not an Assyrian if you are a lesbian. SO where does that leave us as a cultural group grappling for some sort of recognition and self-determination?

My name is not Shamiram or Nineveh or Atour. I was given a Turkish-Muslim name. I am not a Christian (and let's not even attempt to delve on my religious identity). I struggled for years trying to be able to speak even colloquial 'soorat' let alone read and write. Both my parents are Assyrians and yet I always told "you don't really look like and Assyrian" further casting doubt and speculation on my identity. I don't cook Assyrian traditional foods and cannot dance any of the folkloric dances. I can't even understand the lyrics of Assyrian songs (not that I really listen to them). SO Who Am I? And where is my rightful location to speak? Do I indeed have one? Andreas, am I Assyrian?

As the daughter of immigrants who married and had their children in the west, I am undeniably western in many ways. My most proficient language is English, a language I have a deep love and appreciation for as it has allowed me to speak and express my thoughts. My code of ethics, my feminism, my sense of political justice (socialist as they seem to lean) are all shaped by western education, western friends and a western upbringing.

I can try to escape this mould. I can read critical arguments of Arab, Asian, Latin American and African academics and shamans. I have travelled to Latin America for only 6 months and now live in Africa. I can make dialogue with Europeans, Latin Americans, Asians and Africans. So who am I still? Can I be hailed a Global Citizen? And again, where is my right to speak? Where is my experience, my culture and my identity located? On my Body? In My Blood? On the piece of land I was born and raised?

In my fervour and passion to "internationalise" the Assyrian comunity in Sydney, I became wholeheartedly involved a few years back. I wanted to reach out to my "roots" which according to my parents' country of location were Iraq and Turkey. I set out on a journey. I trekked through 9 Middle Eastern countries. I wanted to meet "my people" and connect to "my land", but these naive thoughts were soon crushed and abandoned as I came to the self realisation that I am inextricably western. As much sympathy and comraderie I have wth oppressed people around the world, I come from a very privelaged background, where sympathy and comraderie are all I will ever share with Assyrians in Iraq, or oppressed ethnic groups elsewhere. SO where is the dilemma and how does Marx solve this dilemma for us?

We have often heard in the realm of social anthroplogist thinking, that the native critic is the new spokesperson for any given group. Gone are the imperialist notions of western, anglo-european men going to small tribes in Papua New Guinea and writing their ethnographies. Now we want the Papua New Guineans to write about themselves, as it is more pc. But is it?

Can I write about the state of Assyrians? Or Assyrian Women? Or Assyrian, non-Christian feminist women raised in Sydney? I would like to hear your thoughts. Ofcourse personally I do believe in the right of individuals to speak, and new etnographies are like social vignettes, captured by an "outsider" but written in the words of ethnic groups themselves. But apart from short stories, who are the intellectuals that will further define social theory? Who are the political analysts? I am sure that if Adelita had the time or the urge to write her story as a woman in mexico the international academic community would applaud her. But what if she were to define social theory?

I am sorry if my thoughts are incongruent and broken. I am no writer. I am simply here to share a dialogue with anyone who cares to partake in one.

ANd as to Marx, is he the one social critic who actually gave us clearly defined ideas about our identities as workers and wage slaves to the corporate ruling classes? IS this where revolution and real social redefinition will arise?

In Guevara's "Socialism and (hu)Man" we are enlightened by the struggles the proletariat should make. And unlike most "marxologists" as opposed to real marxists, Guevera talks about social and ethnic identities as well as artistic movements that will arise. In other words, we wil not all wear the same clothes and have the same haircut like the images shown to us (by the US) of communist china. Is a workers revolution the real way we can separate the narsai's from the rest of the assyrian community?

Let me know.

Always,
Warrior Empress xoxoxox



---------------------


The full topic:



Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, applicatio...
Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-language: en-us
Cache-control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-length: 6148
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf/rkvsf_core.php?narsai_n_jackie_sittin_in_a_tree-KNoq.Geop.REPLY
User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)



Powered by RedKernel V.S. Forum 1.2.b9