Meaning-Making Variations in
Acculturation & Ritualization
A Multi-generational Study of Suroyo Migrants in Sweden

By Onver A. Cetrez
August 2005
Uppsala University Press
ISBN: 9155461891
384 pages, Illustrated, 6 ½" x 9 ½"
$79.50 Paper Original

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This is a Ph.D. dissertation. The process of acculturation is the framework of this dissertation, with a focus on how this affects meaning-making among three generations of Suroye in the city of Sodertalje, Sweden. Special focus is given to the third generation. An inter-disciplinary and mixed-model approach is used.

Two different patterns of meaning-making can be depicted along generation and gender, one with a stronger emphasis on issues of identification. As a result of acculturation, religious practices decrease among adults and youth, while Suroyo affiliation maintains a strong and stable function among all three generations.

The issue of identification is, among the Suroye youth, a complicated process, linked to issues of power, domination, and perceived discrimination. Within the process of acculturation they strategically use several designations for identification, Aramean, Assyrian, Suroyo, Syrian, and Swedish, either separately or combined, with the purposes of: differentiating themselves from others, and negotiating their identity.

Sociology / Religion
Psychologia et Sociologia Religionum, No. 17

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