Death & Life: Local Conceptions of Reincarnation among the Druzes in the Middle East

The present research proposal focuses upon the narratives and discourses on taqammus (metempsychosis, reincarnation, or the transmigration of the soul) among the Druze population of the Middle East. Notwithstanding the fact that taqammus constitutes a central element of the Druze belief system, cases where people actually can remember their previous lives and families, are specific cases insofar, as they usually have to do with unexpected and violent events of death (such as tragic accidents or homicide). Remarkably enough, people consider concrete cases of taqammus as ambivalent. During our preliminary research many of our interview partners emphasised that it might indeed be relieving to find a beloved family member lost to death again in the shape of a child born into another family. At the same time, though, they stressed that taqammus was not entirely unproblematic and produced considerable chaos: to which family does such a re-born child actually belong (to the old one or the new one)? Everything gets mixed up, so they emphasised, people might end up emotionally hurt, and cases of reincarnation might even cause tangible conflict! The present project seeks to investigate such ethno-sociological problems that go along with the concept of taqammus. By means of case-reconstructive research, the situation of concrete individuals and their families shall be reconstructed in detail. Of central importance thus are processes of personal and collective identity formation and the epistemological foundations which enable taqammus to function the way it does (time and space conceptions, models of reality/viability, gender, etc.). Data collection and analysis will follow the approach of case-reconstructive-research. The ethnological fieldwork shall be carried out in different national contexts, in different social strata, and among both initiated (uqqal) and non-initiated (juhhal) Druzes. In total, between seven and eight months of fieldwork over a period of three years are scheduled in Druze areas of Lebanon and Israel/Palestine. While fieldwork cannot be conducted in Syria under the present conditions, Syrian Druzes nevertheless form an important group for the present study: Given the strong connection between taqammus and violent and sudden events of death, research into taqammus is highly topical in times of war and trauma. Therefore, the present research project seeks to specifically interview Syrian Druze refugees who temporarily have settled down in Lebanon.

For the Druze, an ethno-religious minority in the Middle East, the belief in transmigration [taqammu] is an integral part of their religion. When a person dies, their soul migrates into a newborn, whereby Druze are always reborn as Druze, just as men are reincarnated as men and women as women. In rare cases, individual children may remember their previous lives, search for, and find their former families. Precisely such special cases, commonly referred to by the Druze as Amalyat an-nuq [literally: operation of remembering and retelling], formed the starting point for this research project. In the course of ethnographic field research, biographical-narrative interviews were conducted with people who were either able to recall their past lives themselves or had such cases in their families or among their acquaintances. First, during the research process, we could prove that all these cases are subject to a uniform pattern: the same content elements (schemata) are common to all cases and form the precondition for the event to be regarded as authentic within the Druze community. In addition, such reincarnation cases are always integrated into moralising discourses that directly refer to truth and divine justice as well as to personal and collective identity constructions. Second, in light of the research results, future anthropological theorising will arguably have to consider another form of kinship, namely one based on socially recognised cases of reincarnation, generally referred to as qarbat ar-r among Druze. Surprising was the high degree of authenticity with which some "speaking" (remembering their past lives) children were reintegrated into the setting of their former families. Thus, cases could be documented in which "speaking" children moved to their former families or built their house next to their former family after marriage. Interestingly, the closeness in kinship established that way does not only refer to individuals directly involved, but in many cases, also includes their descendants - even if the "speaking" links between the family groups die one day. Similar to "normal kinships", kinships formed through reincarnation cases are often characterised by intra-family disputes, competitive situations, and ambivalent feelings of duty. Third, for a community whose settlement areas are separated from each other by nation-state frontlines, NATO razor wire and minefields, such kinship constructions create not only an imaginary link to common Druze identity but also very concrete networks that are (or can be) lived empirically by those concerned. Looking back at the high degree of empathy with which the interviewees recounted their cases of reincarnation, the conceptions of rebirth among the Druze in the Middle East seem to be one thing above all: useful for personal and collective survival - across borders. The research results can be accessed in the project publication: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/71546