Estelle Amy de la Bretèque

Biography

Estelle Amy de la Bretèque is a researcher in anthropology/ethnomusicology at the Laboratory of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology (LESC) of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). During her USIAS fellowship, she will be hosted by Professor Jérôme Beauchez at the Laboratory for interdisciplinary cultural studies (LinCS) of the University of Strasbourg.

Her research in anthropology and ethnomusicology explores the voicing of emotions in various vocal traditions. In her doctoral thesis, defended in 2010 at Paris Nanterre University, she analysed the role of melodized speech in the Yezidi community of Armenia, a Kurdish-speaking ethnoconfessional group. This work resulted in the publication of several articles and the book Paroles mélodisées. Récits épiques et lamentations chez les Yézidis d’Arménie (2013, Classiques-Garnier).

Her current research focuses on changes in religious practices among the Yezidis, particularly in the European diaspora. Between 2019 and 2023, she conducted ethnographic research with Iraqi Yezidi refugees in the Drôme region of France, which led to a second book titled Le collier de l’ange Paon. Enquête auprès des Êzidis de la Drôme (Cpa Valence). She is now planning ethnographic work at the Franco-German border, home to many Yezidis who arrived in several waves of migration from Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. She is also conducting research in Greece on exile and absence, particularly in their musical expressions. Since January 2025, she has been coordinating a research-creation project ArTeC with Makis Solomos (Musidanse-Paris 8) entitled Syros-Gyaros: Affects of Exile and Narrative and Artistic Creation.

Estelle Amy de la Bretèque is also a musician. She has been trained since childhood in various musical traditions, particularly Javanese gamelan and Mediterranean music.

Fellowship 2025

Dates - 01/09/2025-31/08/2027

Project summary

YEZIDISM IN DIASPORA: BELIEFS, DOUBTS AND REINVENTIONS IN MIGRATION

This project examines the deep religious transformations in Yezidism since the massacres by the Islamic State in Sinjar (2014) that led to massive emigration of the Yezidis outside of the Middle East. The Yezidis live scattered between the Middle East (Iraq, Syria), the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia) and Europe. Yezidism, the religion of the Yezidi people, is experiencing significant transformations due to recent radical changes in the lives of the Yezidis, and particularly in the context of massive displacement. Based on field research with Yezidis living on the two sides of the French-German border, where waves of migrations settled since the 1980s as well as in the Caucasus where the Yezidis settled during the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th centuries, this project aims at understanding the ongoing transformations of religious and social rules within the Yezidis community.

Since the 1990s, several “Yezidi houses” (mala Ezdiyan) have been opened in Germany (Oldenburg, Hanover and Celle), where Yezidis meet for debates, cultural events and classes. This marks a change for them, as they had no place for regular meetings until now. A new house is planned in Forbach (Germany) in the near future. The practices and rituals of the Yezidis vary considerably, and the differences are particularly noticeable between the Yezidis of the Middle East and those of the Caucasus. Today, the Yezidis are revisiting and trying to homogenize their religion from within (especially in the European diaspora and in the Caucasus). This project aims to study these contemporary reconfigurations, both to allow a better knowledge of these communities, and because the war in the Middle East and its consequences constitute a crucial turn in the history of Yezidism.

The genocide perpetrated by the Islamic State and the new migration wave of Yezidis from Iraq and Syria towards Europe has had a huge impact on the life of all Yezidis, radically changing certain beliefs and religious practices. However, this fact has been largely overlooked in many scholarly publications and in the media.. In documenting these commemorative and unifying efforts, this project uncovers the possibilities and limitations of memorial and religious endeavours for a marginalized group. More widely, it will help understanding processes of religious transformation in migration as well as globalisation of religious practices. The objective is a full-length monograph in collaboration with Yezidi informants in the field.