Between Individual and Collective, Past and Future: Analysing Moluccan Social Identity Construction through the Invocation of Collective Memory in Identity Performances

Abstract

This research investigates the connections between social identity and collective memory, and how these connections are invoked in diasporic identity performances. Within the field of conflict studies, much research has been conducted on collective diasporic identities in relation to ongoing ethnic intergroup conflicts. As a result, there is a tendency in this work to overlook (1) the individual experiences which predicate engagement with diasporic identities, and (2) the expression of diasporic identity after instances of ethnic conflict. Due to the inherent dynamism which is exhibited by identity construction in diasporic communities, there is a need to address the intersectionality of the experiences of its members, to fully understand the motivations which underlie post-conflict diasporic identity performance. To this end, this thesis has conducted research on the experiences of members of the Moluccan diaspora in the Netherlands, investigating how these experiences are translated into cultural maintenance practices. In so doing, it has posed the following main research question: How may the interaction between experiences of personal and collective diasporic identity amongst members of the Moluccan community be understood through an analysis of the enactment of discursive framing of collective memory in their cultural maintenance practices? In responding to this question, the thesis has taken an agent-oriented methodological approach, conducting interviews and participant observation to collect data which elevates individual experiences of social identity and memory. It has analysed the data utilizing an inductive frame analysis, mapping the invocation of identity and memory along identified frame element categories. The research suggests that personal experiences, influenced by emotional repertoires, exhibit complex connections to association and distinction with group-level narratives concerning Moluccan identity, which are reflected in the framing of collective memory narratives through my respondents’ cultural maintenance practices.