Fixations

Abstract

This chapter examines how the state and ordinary people deployed social categories before the period of violence. It argues that lines of difference were more changeable and context dependent than nationalist claims would imply. To contextualize how violent displays transform the basis for belonging, the chapter explores what came before. Through a brief survey of category making in all three countries, it makes three arguments. First, fixity is a fiction. Variability in meanings and usage is the norm, even during conditions of violence. Second, state institutions do not reflect existing relations between “groups;” they are mechanisms for creating uniform categories, fitting everyone into them, then arranging those categories in a hierarchy of rights, privileges, and entitlements. Third, despite states' best efforts, meanings remain not just variable, but also ambiguous. It is this ambiguity that becomes a potent force for those who put violence on display.