2 | Living in the Ottoman Realm
dismemberment as a result of European imperialism, internal strife, and World
War I. We focus in particular on the development and transformation of identity.
Determining what was Ottoman requires exploring a variety of individual expe-
riences and places as well as understanding some key notions surrounding the
central concept of identity.
Understanding Identity
Classification and categorization surround us, and the human tendency to clas-
sify is natural but has its pitfalls and problematic assumptions. Classification is
not a neutral process of discovering what has existed but is an active process that
simultaneously creates and destroys as it describes. In relation to the social and
cultural identities of individuals and groups, classifying and categorizing may
make one aspect of identity visible while hiding others—or we could say that
one voice is amplified while others are silenced. People do not easily fit into cate-
gories, and that is as true of the past as it is of the present. Placing an individual in
a given category is never a perfect fit, and no single classification is best for every
individual. When examining the past we are attempting to recover many voices
and not claiming that any one point of view has universal validity.
Accepting that to study the past we must classify, the question remains as to
which are the best terms for classifying. Some historians believe that we should
use classification systems with only the categories that people used in a given
place and time, to escape the trap of anachronism. Other scholars believe that it
is best to use classifications that we have developed because we may perceive cat-
egories that might not have been apparent to contemporaries. Both approaches
have their dangers, and the best approach is to be aware of how we employ clas-
sification systems, recognizing their strengths and their limitations. We must
not essentialize categories and see them as representing a more concrete reality
than they actually do, and we must realize that any category and its descriptive
terms are the result of a long process of negotiation. We must remember that the
system of classification does not make reality but is a tool for us to perceive what
that reality was.
The sociologist Rogers Brubaker and the historian Frederick Cooper co-
gently warn of the pitfalls and benefits of identity studies. They call for scholars
to differentiate between categories of analysis and categories of practice. Accord-
ing to Brubaker and Cooper, categories of analysis are the classifications used by
scholars to make sense of and interpret the past within the context of the present
day. For example, our contemporary conceptualizations of sexuality are very dif-
ferent from those of the past. Identity constructions, such as heterosexual, ho-
mosexual, gay, lesbian, or transgender, are germane to our time and place and
carry with them distinct meanings and agendas that did not necessarily exist in