ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to understand two broad concerns regarding the Syrian war: how sectarian violence emerged; and why minorities in Syria, the Druze, in particular, did not join the anti-regime opposition. It firstly delineates how sectarian violence has been theorised with reference to the anthropology of war, globalisation and the state. Secondly, ethnographically the chapter explores ideologies of sectarianism, paying attention to the rhetoric of 'imperial sectarianism' employed by the Syrian state before the war as a way of understanding the dialectics between state and sects. Lastly, it presents an empirical micro-history of war and sectarianism in Jaramana by analysing how both identities and political dynamics have changed on the ground over the past five years. The chapter offers a window to Jaramana from the particular vantage point of the author's interlocutors. It also offers an anthropologically based perspective of what has happened in the Druze neighbourhood of Jaramana since the start of the war in Syria.
