Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites: Religion, Politics, and Conflict Resolution (Religion, Culture, and Public Life, 22) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231169957 ISBN 13: 9780231169950

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2016

Synopsis

This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted―or not―by conflict, and the policy consequences.

These essays map the choreographies of shared sacred spaces within the framework of state-society relations, juxtaposing a site's political and religious features and exploring whether sharing or contestation is primarily religious or politically motivated. Although religion and politics are intertwined phenomena, the contributors to this volume understand the category of "religion" and the "political" as devices meant to distinguish between the theological and confessional aspects of religion and the political goals of groups. Their comparative approach better represents the transition in some cases of sites into places of hatred and violence, while in other instances they remain noncontroversial. The essays clearly delineate the religious and political factors that contribute to the context and causality of conflict at these sites and draw on history and anthropology to shed light on the often rapid switch from relative tolerance to distress to peace and calm.

About this title

Book Description

This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted―or not―by conflict, and the policy consequences.

About the Author

Elazar Barkan is professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, director of the School of International and Public Affairs' Human Rights Concentration, and director of Columbia's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He is the coauthor of No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in Minority Repatriation and author of The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices.

Karen Barkey is Haas Distinguished Chair of Religious Diversity and professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0231169957
• ISBN 13: 9780231169950
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 440
• Editor: Barkan Elazar, Barkey Karen