Creating a 'we' between categories: social categories and Alevi-Sunni intermarriages

ÖZATEŞLER ÜLKÜCAN G.

IDENTITIES-GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER, vol.27, no.6, pp.712-730, 2020 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 27 Issue: 6
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/1070289x.2019.1627069
  • Journal Name: IDENTITIES-GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER
  • Journal Indexes: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Anthropological Literature, CAB Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Geobase, Index Islamicus, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, SportDiscus, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.712-730
  • Keywords: Aleviness, sunniness, intermarriage, social contact, identification, cultural studies, INTERETHNIC MARRIAGE, UNITED-STATES, IDENTITY, ASSIMILATION, DIFFERENCE, BOUNDARIES, TURKEY, TRENDS
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Through the findings of research on Alevi and Sunni intermarriages in Izmir, Turkey, this article shows how partners in such marriages recognize differences between Sunniness and Aleviness, how they identify themselves in relation to these categories and define them, and how their marriage influences their identifications. The article presents how the intermarried spouses' own definitions of their background categories reveal the influences of the historical construction of these categories in relation to each another, political stances and current negotiations. Self-identifications and perceptions of differences are handled within these influences while unifying criteria transcending the boundaries of these categories enable them to build on a sense of 'we'. The findings show the spouses' ambiguous, fluid, relational and contextual definitions and identifications within their understandings of one another as parts of a 'we', their ways of living together despite categorical and group differentiations, and negotiations within local and global discourses.