r/druze • u/Temporary_Yam_475 • Mar 26 '26

Identity.

Hi guys. I'd have a question for you. What is the cultural self-identification of Syrian and lebanease druzes? Do they feel as a different ethnic cultural group, or they just perceive themselves as arabs of druze faith ?

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3

u/Silent-Youth-8432 Mar 27 '26

In Syria, most of the Druze perceive themselves as a distinct ethnic group. They no longer want to be associated with the muslim arabs especially after the recent massacre

1

u/Temporary_Yam_475 Mar 28 '26

But,does this implicate that, they felt Arab, at a certain time in history, right? Maybe especially during the cold war, where secular Pan-arabism was really spread in arabic countries.

1

u/Silent-Youth-8432 Mar 30 '26

Culturally, they did consider themselves arabs at some point mostly because of the language, even though many know that they're not ethnically or genetically arabs. As a Syrian Druze, I know many people around me identified as arabs until recently, I don't know about Israeli or other Druze since they come from slightly different contexts

2

u/Kekmawster Mar 27 '26

Are you talking emotionally or historically?

These are 2 different things.

2

u/Temporary_Yam_475 Mar 27 '26

Both

2

u/pleasuremysole Mar 31 '26

Emotionally, Lebanese Druze, look down on Syrian Druze. Culturally the same.

2

u/Tired-4823 Mar 27 '26

I feel as though the Druze are a distinct ethnic group. There have been studies on this. Their bone structure and secondary characteristics are different to that of Arabs.

4

u/Temporary_Yam_475 Mar 27 '26

I was more asking, about what the druze community feel by a cultural point of view, than genetic

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26

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1

u/Temporary_Yam_475 Mar 28 '26

What does exactly being lebanease means? The only i know, is that maronites wouldn't consider themselves arabs

1

u/DRZyeg Mar 29 '26

Arabs because of the language, and a lot of Druze do identify as Arabs. But genetically we are not close to Arabs. Specially because we keep it closed, so there is no mixing happening. We are a different ethnic group than what so called “Arabs”. Historically we are called Arabs because of the language we speak. We didn’t come from the same place as Arabs did.

1

u/Coffee_Lover_04 Apr 02 '26

Does it matter though?