Description
Book Synopsis In his vivid, lively account of how Greek Cypriot villagers coped with a thirty-year displacement, Peter Loïzos follows a group of people whom he encountered as prosperous farmers in 1968, yet found as disoriented refugees when revisiting in 1975. By providing a forty year in-depth perspective unusual in the social sciences, this study yields unconventional insights into the deeper meanings of displacement. It focuses on reconstruction of livelihoods, conservation of family, community, social capital, health (both physical and mental), religious and political perceptions. The author argues for a closer collaboration between anthropology and the life sciences, particularly medicine and social epidemiology, but suggests that qualitative life-history data have an important role to play in the understanding of how people cope with collective stress.
Trade Review "There are few if any longitudinal accounts of how long-term forcibly displaced populations survive and adapt. Providing a unique and intricate account of a lifetime in exile represented through the experiences of the refugees from Argaki, the book is an innovative contribution to the literatureï... A richly metaphorical style adds to the engaging content." · Journal of Refugee Studies
"This is an important book, not only in the very particular context of Cyprus, but also in the longitudinal study of displacement...Loizos quietly and clearly exhorts us to consider the profound and long-term effects of displacement, and Iron in the Soul cannot be recommended highly enough for anyone interested in the experience of refugees over time, the impact on health of forced migration, or the lived history of Cyprus over the past several decades." · JRAI
"What this work represents is the culmination of 40 years of engagement with the same community, a community that the author knew in his youth and with which he himself has grown and matured. This in itself makes the work a type of landmark in anthropology, and one that is best read in relation to his earlier work." · South European Society & Politics
"this is a classic showcase for the strengths of British socio-cultural anthropology: well-constructed, clearly expressed, accessible to the reader, written with great humanity, perceptive and acute. It is a model of writing and analysis, and a rich contribution to Cypriot anthropology and anthropology generally." · History and Anthropology
Table of Contents List of Figures, Graphs, Maps and Tables
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Crisis State and Displaced Citizens
Chapter 2. Ambivalent Relations: Moments in the Unmixing of a Village
Chapter 3. Exits South: Improvisation Vignettes
Chapter 4. Economic Recovery: A Retrospective View
Chapter 5. Crisis Management by Political Consensus
Chapter 6. Revisiting Former Homes
Chapter 7. The Referendum 2004: Too Little, and Too Late?
Chapter 8. Hearts as well as Minds: Illness and Well being
Chapter 9. Coping with Severe Life Events
Chapter 10. A Sociology of Argaki Displacement: the Thirty Year View
Chapter 11. In Their Own Words
Chapter 12. Iron in the Soul: On Grievance and Transcendence
Bibliography
Appendix I: Cyprus Historical Highlights
Appendix II: Main Political Groupings and Parties
Appendix III: Presidents of the Republic of Cyprus
Index
