Reconstructing Lives, Recapturing Meaning: Refugee Identity, Gender, and Culture Change - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 2884491090 ISBN 13: 9782884491099

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

Reconstructing Lives, Recapturing Meaning presents the first systematic investigation of refugees' loss of their old identities and their efforts to construct new ones. Edited by the Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee on Refugee Issues (CORI) of the American Anthropological Association, it critically examines the interplay between cultural, ethnic, and gender constructions among resettled refugee populations. Each chapter is grounded in anthropological theory and method, and the book's framework demonstrates the relationship between the dynamics of forced migration and the ways in which ethnic and gender identities are reinvented in new socio-cultural settings. Unanimous in their perception of boundary maintenance as central to identity formation, these essays allow readers to view refugee resettlement as a creative, experimental process.

About this title

Review

""Reconstructing Lives, Recapturing Meaning prevents, often in a lively and readable manner, new accounts of refugee groups that have been little studied, new inquiries that extend knowledge about refugee experiences, and new analyses of long-standing refugee groups. Some of the chapters can be called brilliant, outstanding, clever, and full of ideas. All are solid contributions."
-Nancy Donnelly of University of Washington

Synopsis

This work presents a systematic investigation of refugees' loss of their old identities and their efforts to construct new ones. It examines the interplay between cultural, ethnic and gender constructions among resettled refugee populations. Each chapter is grounded in anthropological theory and method, and the text's framework demonstrates the relationship between the dynamics of forced migration and the ways in which ethnic and gender identities are reinvented in new socio-cultural settings. Theses essays allow readers to view refugee resettlement as a creative, experimental process.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 2884491090
• ISBN 13: 9782884491099
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 253
• Editor: Camino Linda, Krulfeld Ruth