Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Given that we discuss most of the time the deep past, some users of our group can probably wonder how this affect their personal Armenian identity

 Given that we discuss most of the time the deep past, some users of our group can probably wonder how this affect their personal Armenian identity.

My own opinion is that modern self identification can't in no way be compared to ancient ways of self identifications. So many things changed in the last centuries.
For instance. Nations became more secular. Religions is losing its influence.
Many people know multiple languages.
States had a such institution as citizenship. Some people manage to be citizens of more than one country. Mass media and internet permits people to be connected to a life of a distant group which was impossible in the past.
All this combined means that any person who feels attached to Armenia and Armenians in one or another way can feel itself Armenian even without knowing well the Armenian language. And the inverse is also true. A person can be of pure Armenian origin but he cares so little about Armenia that he don't want others to identify him as Armenian.
In sum it's not current status of person that matters for Armenian identity. But the directionality of his movement. Do he move more and more deeper into Armenian identity or he/she moves away from it. That is what matters not the current position.
PS. Some scholars tried to address this subject. The one well known is Armen Ayvazyan's lectures about "Who is Armenian?". Other people can place different accents. Some will give more importance to Armenian Church. So it's a complicated matter where there is hard to find a consensus. I just opened this thread to discuss it.
Politics will not be tolerated as usual.

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