Diaspora identities are positional political choices, not primordial ascriptions

Evidence

Identities declare, not some primordial identity, but rather a positional choice of the group with which they wish to be associated. Identity choices are more political than anthropological, more “associational,” and less ascribed (Modood et al. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 332

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines identity as positional/associational choice versus ascribed/primordial essence — a cornerstone of Hall’s constructivist identity theory.
• XREF: Carries forward into any Islamophobia reading on how Muslim identity is mobilized or imposed; also echoes the reader’s scaffolding unit on representation and construction of the Other. — connects to: Pan-Arabism functions as elite legitimation rhetoric, not primordial identity. — Youssef Cherif, Neo-pan-Arabism: a renewed contract of…, 15; Clinging to lost-homeland identity actively blocked expellee assimilation — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 381
• ADDENDUM: Reinforces ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ by providing the theoretical frame for why identity claims are positional political assertions rather than fixed tradition.