The Gods of the Hunt

Stereotypes, Risk and National Identity in a Spanish Enclave in North Africa

in Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
Author:
Brian Campbell Max planck Institute for Social Anthropology campbell@eth.mpg.de

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/ajec.2017.260209
Keywords:
blame; border; Ceuta; danger; Mediterranean; Morocco
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Abstract

How do stereotypes – as rhetorical, homogenising claims about the Self and Other – survive despite their users having personal experiences that contradict them? This article addresses this question by examining why the Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta insist the ‘moro’ is a cunning, hostile antagonist, even when their interactions with Moroccans tend to be profitable, and even as ethnographers of mainland Spain report widespread revisions of the Moorish migrant’s negative image and the country’s Islamic past. Building on the interpretative model of stereotypes developed by Herzfeld, Brown and Theodossopolous, I argue that the ‘moro’ persists as an unequivocally malevolent character because it (1) is cultivated by a number of financially interested actors and (2) is central to the discursive strategies Ceutans use to respond to the political threats to their españolidad from both north and south.

Contributor Notes

Brian Campbell Max planck Institute for Social Anthropology. E-mail: campbell@eth.mpg.de

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Anthropological Journal of European Cultures

(formerly: Anthropological Yearbook of European Cultures)

Cover Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
Article Category:
Introduction
Page Count:
25
Keywords:
blame; border; Ceuta; danger; Mediterranean; Morocco
Print Publication Date:
01 Sep 2017
Online Publication Date:
01 Sep 2017
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2017

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