Constitutive violence and the nationalist imaginary. Antagonism and defensive solidarity in Palestine and former Yugoslavia

‘It was all about independence’: loss, division and rejuvenation amongst the East Timorese in Melbourne

“…The processes of identification that are in play have been discussed by anthropologist Glen Bowman (, ). Through the case of Palestine and former Yugoslavia, Bowman (: 319) illustrates that nationalist imaginary emerges ‘when a group of people comes to conceive of itself as a “we” through the process of mobilising against forces its members recognise as threatening their individual and collective survival’. Nationalism, he argues, emerges when the idea of one's identity becomes integrally linked with that of the wider community and one senses that this community and its associated identity is at risk.…”

“…Nationalism, he argues, emerges when the idea of one's identity becomes integrally linked with that of the wider community and one senses that this community and its associated identity is at risk. Through identification emerges identity and the ‘nationalist imaginary reifies as “the nation” the imagined collectivity of all those who suffer “the same” violence at the hands of a common enemy’ (Bowman : 321). The process of identification is supported by a binary that divides the world into the good, but threatened, community of ‘us’ and the evil, threatening, community of ‘them’, and it is often associated with utopic futures.…”

Porous masculinities: agential political bodies among male Hamas youth

“…Amireh 2003;Massad 2006;and Hart 2008). See Bowman (2003) for a discussion of imagined violence of a national enemy and nationalism.…”

Montenegro versus Crna Gora

“…Physical sites of violence for centuries, often still displaying the defacing marks of former conquests (such as saints with their eyes gouged out), they are central to the reproduction of a historical memory and schema of Serbian nationhood centering on suffering and triumph (Bowman 2003;Hayden 2002;Verdery 1999). Slavas are also held by monasteries to celebrate their patron saints, often Serbian kings and heroes whose divine status creates an overlap between blood and spiritual kinship, the nation and the kingdom of heaven.…”