Paper Presentation III:
Identities
Friday, April 9, 10.30–12.30

C. Rommel
Sweden

This paper is a s lightly modified version of a MA dissertation in anthropology which I handed in at SOAS, University of London in September 2009. The main topic is how football plays a role as a vehicle for identity formation among Suryoye, a Christian, Middle Eastern migrant community in Sweden. Two Suryoyo second division football clubs from the small town of Södertälje – Syrianska FC and Assyriska FF – constitute the core of the analysis, which is based on two short periods of fieldwork in summer 2009 among fans from both clubs. The clubs mirror an ongoing identity conflict within the Suryoye community between those who call themselves ‘Assyrians’ and those who prefer ‘Syriacs’ as the attribute of their collective identity. Theoretically, dominant conceptions within football studies of football and fandom as ‘liminal’ events that are best interpreted as ‘carnivalesque’ or ‘spectacles’ are challenged. Instead I argue for a Butlerian notion of identity as constituted of repetitive, mundane performativities. In this way, football is not, as has often been the case, seen as a mere reflection of identities and politics, but rather as a constitutive and indeed integrated part of the identity formation within the group. The ethnographic discussion revolves around different aspects of Suryoyo football as a ‘performative space’ that facilitates different ways of being Suryoyo in Sweden today. It is first shown that the division between the two clubs in various ways perpetuates the difference between Assyrians and Syriacs, both in the present and through the articulation of historical narratives. However, the clubs are also seen as ‘national teams’ for a people (or, if one likes, two peoples) without a nation, and in this sense football is also a space for performativities that connect a de-territorialised diaspora(s) all over Sweden and also abroad. Finally, football is also a space where Suryoye have been very Swedish and also very successful. As such, football is also one of the most effective avenues for fans to negotiate a successful Swedish-Suryoyo identity in contemporary Sweden and as a consequence it is also in many ways an empowering sphere of Suryoye cultural life.