Affective terrains of Assyrian heritage under Daesh

Abstract

The construction and destruction of cultural monuments has long been used by those who hold–or seek to hold–power as a tool to cultivate historical narratives that support their political agendas. Drawing on analysis of Daesh propaganda and semi-structured and oral history interviews with members of the Assyrian community, this article investigates the affective politics of heritage sites and how they have been employed in the governmentality of place and space during conflict. Building on scholarship on landscape and critical heritage studies, it highlights the intersection of temporalities embodied in heritage and how memories and emotion contained in these spaces shape human action. By focusing on the ties between heritage and identity, and how this is exerted and formed within and without state borders in the construction and maintenance of societies, this article explores how heritage extends beyond bounded localities to examine how relationships to heritage cross time and space in the formation of political communities.