CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Community: An Alternative to the Nation?

Organiser: Annedith M. Schneider

Locklin, Blake (Southwest Texas State University, USA) CITIZENS OF THE WORLD: THE DREAM OF A TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITY
In this paper, I examine the idea of national and transnational imagined communities in the context of Latin Americans living, studying, and working in Asia. For example, Beatriz Sarlo, in her article "Aesthetics and Post-Politics: From Fujimori to the Gulf War," analyzes pictures of Alberto Fujimori in his first presidential campaign as emblematic of a "post-politics" in which image replaces content and the idea of a global culture is a dangerous illusion. More than Fujimori, however (despite his own recent immigration to Japan), the dekasegui (foreign manual laborers) and other Peruvians in Japan face questions of local and global identity in their daily lives. Their own accounts show a tension between the desire to believe in a shared culture and the reality of cultures that are incompatible if not incommensurable. Nevertheless, attempts to position themselves as global citizens in a world of universal tolerance and love represent not simply an acceptance of the manipulation of mass media that Sarlo decries but rather also a need to imagine a community that will help them salvage meaning from a difficult experience.

Toman, Cheryl (Millikin University, USA) WHEN WOMEN OF NIGERIA AND CAMEROON ARE AS ONE
Although Nigeria and Cameroon are definitively two separate nations today, the ties that bind the Igbo women of Nigeria and the Kom women of Cameroon seem to dissolve these borders. Both groups of women live in communities that are organized according to a matriarchal social structure where women ultimately hold more authority in the power structure than men, although there is an intricate system of checks and balances applicable to the entire community. Nigerian feminist sociologist Ifi Amadiume highlights these communities in her recent book, From Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, and Culture, and this work as well as other anthropological studies will be used in the analysis of a political structure that is so highly organized that both women and men have scoffed at the idea of state government both in words and actions. This study will focus on Igbo and Kom customs and rituals that transcend national boundaries, creating perhaps a "better" option than a nation for these ethnic groups.

Bilici, Mucahit (University of Michigan, USA) WHY UMMA IS NOT A BIG NATION?: TWO IMAGINED COMMUNITIES IN THE WRITINGS OF SAID NURSI
Nation has been the dominant organizing principle for many human communities for the last two centuries. In the age of globalization, the idea of nation is being questioned both theoretically and practically. Deconstruction of nation(alism)invites competing conceptions of community formation. Umma as the community of Muslim believers is one such alternative conception. This paper explores the ways in which umma is constructed differently in contradistinction to nation in the works of Said Nursi. Drawing upon Nursi's ideas, I argue that contemporary appropriation of the idea of umma by Islamism is simply another form of nationalism, Muslim nationalism. By looking at the genealogies of nation and umma, this paper delineates different ontological assumptions built in these two concepts and discusses their practical implications.

Schneider, Annedith (Sabanci University, Turkey) A COMMUNITY OF THEIR OWN? CITIZENS AND "SISTERS" IN ALGERIA
Much official rhetoric in Algeria has based the idea of national identity on the infamous slogan, "Islam is our religion Arabic is our language, Algeria is our fatherland." This vision, however, ignores the significant role of other ethnic, linguistic and religious groups in shaping contemporary Algerian identity. Some current observers of Algeria's political situation have been enthusiastic about the revival of traditional community councils in Berber areas of the country, as a possible antidote to failed national institutions. In some respects these local entities do seem more responsive to local needs, although they are far from democratic, given that members are not elected and women are excluded entirely. While women may be accorded a symbolic role in the nation or community, as citizens or sisters, their actual participation is often limited. This paper, focusing on the work of one of Algeria's best-known women writers, Assia Djebar, considers the kind of place available for women in the nation and communities of Algeria.