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Dissertation Information for Stephan H. Astourian

NAME:
- Stephan H. Astourian

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1996)

ADVISORS:
- Richard G. Hovannisian

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Georges Sabagh
- Edward Berenson

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Testing world-system theory, Cilicia (1830s-1890s): Armenian-Turkish polarization and the ideology of modern Ottoman historiography

Abstract: This work, based on American, British, German, missionary, Ottoman, and Turkish archival and published primary sources, comprises four aspects. First, it "tests" the central statements of world-system theory as it is applied to Ottoman history. These deal with economic underdevelopment, the role of the Ottoman state, racism, the economic function of minorities, and the origins of ethnic conflict. Second, the regional case-study of Cilicia (1830s-1896), one of the two most developed Ottoman regions at the end of the nineteenth century, offers most of the material against which to examine the relevance of world-system theory. As the study of that region does not provide a broad enough database to test the world-system views on racism and ethnic conflict, relevant examples pertaining to the Anatolian part of the empire from the 1830s to 1918 have also been used. Third, what this testing reveals gives insight into the ideology of modern Ottoman historiography. Fourth, the deconstruction of this ideology sheds light on the occultation and stereotypical representation of Armenian Ottoman history and the functions played by two iconic figures ("the Armenian international trader" and "the Armenian revolutionary") in the narrative of modern Ottoman historiography.

This case-study does not corroborate the main statements of the world-system approach to modern Ottoman history. For instance, the peripheralization of Cilicia in the nineteenth century did not lead to immiserization, underdevelopment, and deindustrialization. Far from "resisting" that peripheralization, the trade policies of the Ottoman state until the 1860s and its agricultural policies throughout the nineteenth century facilitated it. The Armenian-Turkish polarization in the late Ottoman period was not caused by the rise of an Armenian bourgeoisie; it had agrarian origins.

As this theory neglects class analysis, state policies, and endogenous factors, as it presents minorities as exploiting victimizers, and not as victims, as it exonerates the periphery from any responsibility in its fate, it reflects the perceptions of peripheral nationalisms and national bourgeoisies.

MPACT Scores for Stephan H. Astourian

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-01-19 19:38:21

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Students under Stephan H. Astourian

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None