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Accumulating Amman: Belongings and Attachments over Iterations of Palestinian Displacement
Abstract
Refugees’ relationship to place is often understood in binary terms—a dyad distinguishing between place of origin (where refugees fled from) and place of refuge (where refugees now live). However, displacement is often not a singular event but a recurring one, as many refugees once displaced must move again due to new instances of violence or in search of better circumstances. Displacement therefore represents not only the loss of place but the accumulation of many places. But how do refugees generate attachment to new places across iterations of displacement? I consider this question by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Amman among Palestinian refugees from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus who were displaced to the Jordanian capital by the Syrian Civil War. In this paper, I explore these individuals’ attempts at emplacement in Amman and argue that relationships with contemporary places of residence are mediated by experiences of and attachments to prior places of belonging. When experiences in new places clash with frames of reference forged in previous places of residence, it can cause alienation and discursive rejection of contemporary emplacement. However, following work on assemblage urbanism and dwelling, I show how these individuals’ daily practices of dwelling can lead to the assemblage of new networks and relationships and, with them, new attachments to Amman. Therefore, by taking displacement not only as an instance of loss but also an experience of recurrent accumulation, I aim to highlight how emplacement creates, relies on and occasions the reinterpretation of palimpsests of place, memory and belonging.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Jordan
Palestine
Sub Area
None