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    Difference and Laïcité: France's Headscarf Debates and the Banning of Religious Symbols in French Public Schools

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    Issue Date
    2007-12-11
    Author
    Meiers, Heather LeAnn
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    92 pages
    Type
    Thesis
    Degree Level
    M.A.
    Discipline
    Anthropology
    Rights
    This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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    Abstract
    The prolific debate and discussion about headscarves serves to direct our attention to particular aspects of French society at the times of the headscarf affairs in 1989, 1993-4 and 2003-4. Through analyzing these debates and discussions of headscarves and the social situation of North African migrants and French Muslims, as well as the surrounding context of French laïcité, multiculturalism, Europeanization and globalization, we see that the headscarf serves as a useful tool and medium for the maintenance and expression of power and social boundaries. Banning the headscarf became a way to direct symbolic and structural violence against France's minorities in order to create and solidify French national identity in an environment of uncertainty. My thesis explores Hanson's distinction between contradictory and compartmental difference. The headscarf affairs were instances of contradictory difference that arose out of a context of compartmental differences. They also served to define, mark and reinforce the boundaries of different parts of French society in a continuing situation of compartmental difference. Arjun Appadurai's notions about the use of physical violence to create certainty in an uncertain world, and Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence clarify the relationship between contradictory and compartmental difference.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/2060
    Collections
    • Theses [3711]
    • Anthropology Dissertations and Theses [107]

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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