Faces of the State

Faces of the State is a penetrating study of the production of a state-revering political culture in the public life of 1990s Turkey. In this new contribution to the anthropology of the state, Yael Navaro-Yashin brings recent poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory to bear on the study of the political. Delving deeper than studies of nationalist discourse that would focus on consciously articulated narratives of political identity, the author explores sites of "fantasy" in the public-political domain of Istanbul.


The book focuses on the conflict over secularism in the aftermath of an Islamist victory in the city's municipalities. In contrast with studies that would problematize and objectify religious movements, the author examines the agency of secularists under a state widely known for its "secularist" policies. The complexity and dynamism of the context studied moves well beyond scholarly distinctions between "secularity" and "religion," as well as "state" and "society." Here, secularism and Islamism emerge as different guises for a culture of statism where people from "society" compete to claim "Turkish culture" for themselves and their life practices. With this work that stretches the boundaries of regionalism, the author situates her anthropological study of Turkey not only in scholarship on the Middle East, but also in the broader problem of thinking "Europe" anew.

List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction
Semiconscious States: The Political and the Psychic in Urban Public Life 1
Entering the City 1
Secularism in Public Life 6
The Turkish Astronomer and the Little Prince 8
The Construction of "Turkish Culture" 10
"The Anthropology of Turkey" 12
The Not-Too-Native Anthropologist 13
Researching the Political 15
PART I: CULTURAL POLITICS 17
1. Prophecies of Culture: Rumor, Humor, and Secularist Projections about "Islamic Public Life" 19
"The Native" 19
Tales of Nightmare 22
Rumor or Reality? 29
The Issues at Stake 36
The Prophecy 40
Public Life and the Construction of "Local Culture" 42
2. The Place of Turkey: Contested Regionalism in an Ambiguous Area 44
"Turkey" as Sign 44
The History of "Region" 46
Beheadings in Saudi Arabia 51
Joining the Customs Union 55
The Place of Turkey 58
The Contest over "Region" 65
"The Middle Eastern Woman" 67
Undoing Area Studies 73
3. The Market for Identities: Buying and Selling Secularity and Islam 78
Consuming "Culture" 78
The Veil as a Commodity 82
Secularist Commodities 85
Istanbul's New Marketplaces 90
The Islamist Department Store 94
The Trademark of Islam 98
The Force of Symbols 107
The Market for Identities 111
PART II: STATE FANTASIES 115
4. Rituals for the State: Public Statism and the Production of "Civil Society" 117
The Soldier's Farewell 117
The Wrestler as Leviathan 122
The Flag Campaign 127
Does "Civil Society" Exist? 130
"The Transparent Reflection of Society" 137
"A Holiday of the People" 144
The Agency of "Society" 152
5. Fantasies for the State: Hype, Cynicism, and the Everyday Life of Statecraft 155
Does the "State" Exist? 155
Mundane Cynicism 166
The Truck That Crashed into the "State" 171
The Magnetism of State Crime 180
The Afterlife of the "State" 183
6. The Cult of Ataturk: The Apparition of a Secularist Leader in Uncanny Forms 188
Like a Cross That Stops the Devil . . . 190
"Visits to a Saint's Tomb" 191
Mystical Apparitions 193
Calling Spirits 194
Numerology 195
Statues and Idols 196
Heads of State 199
Secularist Excesses 201
Notes 205
Bibliography 231
Index 241