Under the Same Sky - by Seçil Daǧ & taș (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An ethnographic study of the everyday lives of religious minorities near Turkey's border with Syria

How do people coexist in a world shaped by longstanding differences, political instability, and recurrent displacement? In Under the Same Sky, Seçil Daǧtaș addresses this question by exploring the everyday politics of religious difference among minority communities in Turkey's southern borderlands.

In a region often portrayed through the lens of conflict and division, this ethnography brings to life the subtle, often overlooked negotiations occurring in social spaces such as bustling city bazaars, shared worship sites, interfaith unions, home gatherings, and a multireligious choir. Set against the backdrop of major political upheavals in Turkey and Syria before the 2023 earthquakes devastated the region, the book demonstrates how Arab 'Alawis, Christians, and Jews, alongside their Sunni Muslim neighbors, use familiar social idioms--kinship, hospitality, love, and companionship--to reproduce religious differences.

Daǧtaș argues that religious difference is more than an identity marker for these communities, as it is often treated in studies focused on statecraft or political movements. It is a dynamic aspect of social relations which is constantly redefined by race, class, citizenship, and gender, and unsettled by overlapping practices and multireligious belonging. Under the Same Sky focuses on religious difference as lived and reworked in daily encounters--within the larger context of a majoritarian Turkish Sunni state--inviting readers to reconsider secularism, religious plurality, and the nature of political life.

Review Quotes

"An incisive critique of the exhausted liberal discourses of religious dialogue and tolerance, Under the Same Sky is an arresting ethnographic portrait of the cultures of coexistence along the Turkish-Syrian borderlands."-- "Kabir Tambar, Stanford University"

"Both engaging and accessible, Under the Same Sky is a welcome addition to a growing literature on the everyday politics of religious difference along and beyond state power, and should be read and appreciated widely."-- "Karen Barkey, Bard College"

About the Author

Seçil Daǧtaș is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Waterloo, Canada.