Resisting
Violence:
Hegemonic Negotiations of Ethnicity
in the Republic of Macedonia
(doctoral
disseration abstract)
By
Vasiliki
P. Neofotistos
Doctoral candidate in Social Anthropology at Harvard
University
TFF
associate
October 3, 2003
Thesis Advisor: Professor Michael Herzfeld
This is a dissertation about the social negotiation of
ethnicity and local resistance to the use of armed
violence. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork between
March 2000 and August 2001 in Skopje, Republic of
Macedonia, I unfold the social processes related to
ethnicity that can both escalate violence and hinder its
escalation in multi-ethnic states in the Balkans. More
specifically, I ask the following question. Given the
social tensions between Macedonians and Albanians, why
did an all-out ethnic war not sweep across Macedonia when
the conflict between the Macedonian State Army and the
Albanian National Liberation Army erupted in February
2001? By comparing the processes of Macedonian and
Albanian ethnic identity building in an ethnically
heterogeneous neighborhood, I make two arguments. First,
I argue that reasons why civil wars in multi-ethnic
societies are constrained lie with the schematics of
minority social structures and in particular with a
minority's capacity to internalize the hegemonic ideology
of the majority. In particular, the construction of the
division between village and city regulates high and low
social status within the Albanian community and casts
Albanian urbanites in a favorable position vis-a-vis
Albanian villagers. From an urban Albanian viewpoint, the
latter are the only ones who deserve to occupy low
positions in the moral hierarchy found in the wider
society. Consequently, Albanian urbanites and Macedonian
individuals can experience an affinity of values,
negotiate ethnicity and accommodate social tensions by
deploying a variety of strategies, from irony to changing
personal names. Second, I argue that it is the dynamic
combination of social tensions and social constraints
against warfare that grant the social system flexibility
at times of crisis. Social tensions can contribute to
warfare, however, should forces exogenous to the state
boundary emerge and manage to mobilize local support. My
work points to the dynamics generated by the simultaneous
presence of violence and peace in daily life and
contributes to furthering our understanding of the role
minority structures can play in helping avert ethnic
conflict.
©
TFF & the author 2003
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