Lisa Dikomitis – författare

Around 1800 roughly three per cent of the human population lived in urban areas; by 2030 this number is expected to have gone up to some seventy per cent. This poses problems for traditional religions that are all rooted in rural, small-scale societies. The authors in this volume question what the possible appeal of these old religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam could be in the new urban environment and, conversely, what impact global urbanization will have on learning and on the performance and nature of ritual. Anthropologists, historians and political scientists have come together in this volume to analyse attempts made by churches and informal groups to adapt to these changes and, at the same time, to explore new ways to study religions in a largely urbanized environment.

By the summer of 1974, the island of Cyprus was home to two separate refugee communities. Charting the displaced cultures of the Greek Cypriot community in the south, and that of the Turkish communities in the north, Lisa Dikomitis provides a moving and detailed qualitative ethnography of the refugee experience in Cyprus. In her groundbreaking study, made possible by the opening of the north/south border during fieldwork, Dikomitis demonstrates how both ethnic groups are linked by their histories of displacement to a single ''place of desire'', a small mountainous village located in the north of the island. By identifying the specific social and cultural meanings that the notions of home, identity, justice and suffering have come to have for both populations, Cyprus and its Places of Desire will appeal to scholars and students of Cypriot, Turkish and Greek history as well as those with an interest in the fields of anthropology, sociology and identity.

By the summer of 1974, the island of Cyprus was home to two separate refugee communities. Charting the displaced cultures of the Greek Cypriot community in the south, and that of the Turkish communities in the north, Lisa Dikomitis provides a moving and detailed qualitative ethnography of the refugee experience in Cyprus. In her groundbreaking study, made possible by the opening of the north/south border during fieldwork, Dikomitis demonstrates how both ethnic groups are linked by their histories of displacement to a single 'place of desire', a small mountainous village located in the north of the island. By identifying the specific social and cultural meanings that the notions of home, identity, justice and suffering have come to have for both populations, Cyprus and its Places of Desire will appeal to scholars and students of Cypriot, Turkish and Greek history as well as those with an interest in the fields of anthropology, sociology and identity.

Around 1800 roughly three per cent of the human population lived in urban areas; by 2030 this number is expected to have gone up to some seventy per cent. This poses problems for traditional religions that are all rooted in rural, small-scale societies. The authors in this volume question what the possible appeal of these old religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam could be in the new urban environment and, conversely, what impact global urbanization will have on learning and on the performance and nature of ritual. Anthropologists, historians and political scientists have come together in this volume to analyse attempts made by churches and informal groups to adapt to these changes and, at the same time, to explore new ways to study religions in a largely urbanized environment.