The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place is a testament to the power of geographic location. Although purportedly an autobiographic work, it is equally a sociological treatise on the themes of ‘rootedness’ and ‘displacement’. Author Mindy Fullilove links these concepts to the process of identity formation. She contends that, on par with culture and language, the place in which an individual grows up, leaves a mark on their identity. The readings perused for this essay also cover the topic of ethnic roots and geographic displacement. The examples we glean in the readings underscore Mindy Fullilove’s thesis of the centrality of place to human identity.
In In Retreat, Fullilove talks about how her parents resorted to living in exclusive ghettos in New Jersey. It was a time when minority communities were suffering under social censures issued by General McCarthy. The inter-communal atmosphere during the 1950s America was far from harmonious. In the ghetto of Orange, New Jersey, Fullilove’s parents had to overcome the twin evils of racism and classism. The entrenched communal prejudice was such that posh quarters within the city were referred to by the administration as ‘good places’, just as poor neighborhoods were treated as ‘bad places’. Richard Jenkins makes a perceptive remark in this light, when he says
“ethnic and national identity are among the most crucial bases of claim and counterclaim about who gets what, and how much. Ethnicity, origin, and cultural difference seem, at least for the time being, to have replaced class conflict as the motor of history.” (Jenkins, p. 115)
This observation is consistent with Fullilove’s observation on how ‘place’ plays a central role in identity formation. Indeed, Fullilove reckons that integrating with the mores of her city was her earliest educational experience. The semi-rural setting of 1950s Orange gave her a first-hand experience of farming. Her father, who worked as a farm-hand regularly took the young girl along to his work. Likewise, her father’s involvement with NNLC (National Negro Labor Council) exposed her to black politics. Through her father’s participation in agitations and civil disobedience campaigns young Fullilove acquired a unique political education. Needless to say, her politics underwent a radicalization process in the social tumult of 1950s America. According to Fullilove this kind of education is one of a kind, not replicable in the academic setting. Furthermore, she acquired her primary and secondary education while put up in Orange. Though the school followed the standard curricula, Fullilove’s learning went much beyond. In fact, the school was her first and foremost setting for sociological study.
In the article titled The War Against Bosnia-Herzegovina, we see a situation akin to that experienced by Fullilove. The Balkans has had a complex history, involving multiple ethnicities. While racism was the main theme in Fullilove’s experience, language and ethnicity laid the fault lines for conflict in the Balkans. Black Americans fight for dignity and equality was met by stiff opposition from the political establishment’. Likewise, we see how the Bosnia-Herzegovina’s fight for sovereignty met with hostility among European intelligentsia and academia. This is illustrated by numerous instances of misrepresentation. For example, though the outward expression of the struggle is framed as ‘the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina’, in reality, what was happening was a ‘war against Bosnia-Herzegovina’. (Mahmutcehajic, p.219) There is a great degree of distortion involved in media representation of the conflict. This is borne by how the origins of the conflict, though emanated as rational projects, were subsequently
“masked by irrational rhetoric, religion, and emotive interpretations of history, as is indisputably proven by their focus on quantifiable goals. It is possible to establish a reliable and rational model of their relationship while worth highlighting and clarifying at the outset its fateful two-way split – that Bosnia and Herzegovina is: firstly, an organic unity or, second, a construct of separable parts.” (Mahmutcehajic, p.219)
What we see in this veritable framing of the conflict is the strong undercurrent of disregard for historical fact. The same tendencies were witnessed in Mindy Fullilove’s childhood in Orange, New Jersey. At that time, she endured social segregation, which was not a mandated law but rather a silently understood rule. Even worse, she witnessed firsthand how segregation was adopted as policy in major public institutions. The most troubling of these is segregation in the education system, where blacks were only allowed to go to exclusive schools for their community. This is oppression twice over, for it implicitly teaches young black students that they have to live as second-class citizens in their own country. What lays behind this institutionalized discrimination was a successful ideological war. White Americans convinced themselves and others that their race is manifestly superior to the rest. They presented selective biological and cultural markers to strengthen their case. The ideology of White Supremacy was then imposed on major public institutions. We see a similar pattern in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the recent war
“was preceded by an era in which the state was founded on ideology. Regional (as defined by the country’s republics), national and all other dimensions of society were perceived as subordinate to the ideological project. Any insubordinate ideas and trends were rejected, suppressed and often liquidated.” (Mahmutcehajic, p.220)
Richard Jenkins’ article Imagined but Not Imaginary talks of a conflict elsewhere in the Balkans, namely, Yugoslavia. Jenkins reminds the readers of that forgettable episode in Balkan history, where blatant acts of ‘ethnic cleansing’ were witnessed. As Jenkins points out,
“Events in Kosovo since the mid-1990s are a stark reminder, if one were needed, that the genocidal impulse remains a present danger, not to be dismissed as the barbarism of previous generations or ‘the uncivilized’. Kosovo is also a reminder that problems of this nature can never be seen as local. In some respects, there is no such thing as ‘local’ any more.” (Jenkins, p. 114)
The sentiment expressed by Jenkins rings very true, for the black oppression in Fullilove’s America also carried similar impulses. Fortunately for the black community, it did not escalate into outright genocide.
In conclusion, all the scholars discussed in this essay seem to broadly concur on how personal identities are formed. While biology and genealogy play a minimal role, the major role is played by the environment. This environment constitutes the county, district or state in which the individual grows up and forms her personality. Be it in the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina or Yugoslavia or in the United States, people associate very strongly with the soil in which they find abode. It is a nostalgic and sentimental idea, but true nonetheless. This factor is perhaps underplayed in many sociological theories of identity formation.
Works Cited:
Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Chapter 1: In Retreat, The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place, University of Nebraska Press, 2002
Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, The War Against Bosnia-Herzegovina, International Forum Bosnia, Sarajevo, East European Quarterly, XXXIII, No. 2, June 1999
Richard Jenkins, Imagined but Not Imaginary: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Modern World, Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines, University of Chicago Press, p.114+