Big Structures, Social Boundaries, and Identity in Cyprus, 1400 - 1700.

My paper examines long-term shifts in social boundaries and public identity formation in late medieval and early modern Cyprus. This historical context is characterized by a succession of two types of rule, first a Western-style feudal rule by Latin elites followed by rule under the Ottoman Empire. The public identity of the Greek-speaking majority population of Cyprus was very different under each rule, specifically being fragmented under Latin rule and becoming collective under Ottoman rule. The key in explaining this identity transformation from fragmented to collective, I argue, rests with the broader configurations of social boundaries and related dynamics contributing to opportunities or constraints for social mobility. Under Latin rule, a multi-layered stratified configuration of social boundaries encouraged social mobility, which in turn facilitated the creation of crosscutting boundaries along language, religion, and lineage. This context rendered collective identification by the Greek-speakers impossible because the members of this population were separated by all-important (politically and socially) boundaries of social stratification. In contrast, the configuration of social boundaries under Ottoman rule was stratified but not multi-layered. This context situated the Greek-speakers on one side of a boundary signifying religious, linguistic, lineage, as well as political distinctions. As a series of reasons made this boundary nearly impossible to transgress, a socio-cultural process was underway enabling group identification by the Greek-speakers along their religious and lineage attributes, in addition to their linguistic attribute. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]