Kaleidoscopic Arabness / Arabitude Caleidoscópica: Performative Identities and Diasporic Arenas of Syrian-Lebanese Communities

This chapter analyzes Arab identities, which are defined here as a range of related identities (Arab, Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian-Lebanese). It shows how Arab/Syrian-Lebanese ethnicity has been negotiated, transmitted, and reinvented in Brazil. Discrete ethnic/national codifications of the linguistic and cultural heritage of Arabic-speaking immigrants emerged in the period from 1890 to 1930. From 1915 to 1960, various ethnic and religious urban social institutions were created to transmit these codifications. The numerous ethnic and national identities that circulated created the fact that, despite the coming together of Arabic-speaking immigrants and their descendants as a community, there was no consensus about their identity. This created what the author calls kaleidoscopic identities. The data analyzed here was collected during ethnographic fieldwork with the Arab/Syrian-Lebanese community and archival research in its institutions in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, since 2009.