Antagonistic Tolerance: A Comparative Analysis of Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Robert M. Hayden will undertake basic scientific research on a topic of great importance: long-term interaction between religiously defined groups of people who share a territory, and whose interactions are at times amicable and at other times violent. He proposes a new, interactionist model called, "antagonistic tolerance," or competitive sharing. The model encompasses the conjunction of syncretism and separation at religious sites long shared by communities identified and differentiated by religious associations. Typically, interactions exhibit long periods of peaceful coexistence punctuated by periods of violence, sometimes including the complete destruction of sites previously shared, and the expulsion ("ethnic cleaning") of members of one group by another. Usually, individual cases have been analyzed separately. In contrast, this researcher's model will provide an analytical framework for a generalized explanation covering multiple cases and contexts, even those widely separated in space and time. Methodologically, the research is grounded in systematic, macrocomparisons, using historical and contemporary data from religious sites in Turkey, Bulgaria, India and Portugal. The data will be gathered and analyzed by a multidisciplinary team of regional specialists. This approach will permit a major comparative study of this form of interaction that then will be applicable to other cases worldwide. The project differs from work which presumes that conflict is an aberration from a normal state of amicability. This research, to the contrary, anticipates that over long periods of time, interaction between groups may fluctuate between periods of amicability and periods of violence. The antagonistic tolerance model will explain such fluctuation and, thereby, not only will contribute to social science theory but also may help lead to the development of more effective ways of managing competitive interaction between religiously defined ethnic groups in ways that minimize violence.