Andézian Sossie

Biography

Researcher 1 - CNRS, After working extensively on the contemporary forms of Muslim mysticism in Algeria and in the Maghrebian immigration to France, I changed my subject and terrain to interest myself in Eastern Christianity through the study of the holy places in Jerusalem. I carried out five years of intensive field investigation between September 1999 and December 2004 and several stays of one to two months since then, an investigation centered mainly on the relations between the churches which have been fragmented over the centuries. of the doctrinal and territorial bases. I sought to understand what was involved in this attachment to the sacred territories, both among ecclesiastics and lay people, believers as unbelievers, practitioners as non-practitioners. I chose to observe the rituals deployed there, not as a mere repetition of fixed millennial rituals, but as a staging of the history of relations between churches and their evolution according to political contexts . I have deepened the study of the Armenian Church, which is paradigmatic of the reality of Eastern Christianity in Jerusalem. Established in the early Christian centuries with the participation of many of its monks in the discovery of the holy places, it acquired many rights and multiplied churches and monasteries to welcome the pilgrims. It divided itself with the foundation of an Armenian Catholic Church in the nineteenth century, under the impulse of the Vatican, which saw it as the surest way of attracting "schismatics" into its fold. But political factors brought the two Churches closer together: the 1915 genocide and the 1948 Palestinian exodus, where they had to welcome many refugees into their respective convents. And as always in the history of the Armenian people, these religious institutions have ensured not only the framing of the spiritual life but also that of the material, social and cultural life of their members. A strong emigration movement, which has continued since 1948, has given rise to a need in the Armenian community in Jerusalem but also in Armenia (the former Soviet Republic, independent since 1991) and in the diaspora to reconstitute the Armenian heritage of Jerusalem. Rehabilitation of churches and monasteries, conservation of manuscripts and works, constitution of archives, fixation of rituals by image ... But the notion of heritage does not have the same meaning for the different categories of actors (Church , The state, political parties, cultural associations, individuals, etc.). This has led to many debates about the national heritage in the particular case of the Armenian people.

Research Interest

Sacred territories and national spaces: Christmas ceremonies in Bethlehem