Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

A central element of the construction, preservation, and intergenerational transmission of heritage are the identity labels that individuals and groups employ to categorize themselves. A well-established tenet of constructivist social science theory is the process by which identity labels are negotiated by stakeholders and opinion makers across space and time. This paper employs the constructivist lens to explore the emergence of a label that has shaped the heritage of a social cohort, the “Mikrasiates” or people from Asia Minor. The paper examines the emergence and development of the term into a pan-ethnic label which was used to categorize a diverse population of individuals from the regions of the Ottoman Empire that constitute contemporary Turkey. The paper seeks to find answers to the following questions. When and where did this label emerge? Who helped establish and promulgate it? What other labels did “Mikrasiates” compete with and against, and how did it become the identity label of choice? To answer these questions this study employs content analysis methodology to map the utilization of “Mikrasiates” and other competing labels by popular authors, politicians, newspaper contributors, and individuals in both Greece and the United States. In doing so, the paper seeks to add to the existing scholarship of identity construction and its implications on the heritage of this and other similar social cohorts.