Diaspora

Diaspora (pronounced dahy-as-per-uh or dee-as-per-uh)

(1) The scattering of the Jews among the Gentiles living beyond Palestine after the sixth century BC Babylonian captivity and the later Roman conquests of Palestine (the historic origin; usually capitalized).

(2) The body of Jews living in countries outside Israel.

(3) In the New Testament, the those Christians living outside Palestine

(4) Any group which involuntarily has been dispersed outside its traditional homeland.

(5) Any group migration or from a country or region.

(6) Any religious group living as a minority among people of the prevailing religion (not a definition accepted by all).

(7) By extension, the spread or dissemination of something originally confined to a local, homogeneous group (language, cuisine, an economic system et al).

(8) A collective of niche social media communities, run under the auspices of diasporafoundation.org.

1690-1700: From the Ancient Greek διασπορά (diasporá) (scattering; dispersion), from διασπείρω (diaspeírō) (I spread about; I scatter), derived from διά (diá) (between, through, across) + σπείρω (speírō) (I sow), the modern construct being diaspeirein (dia + speirein) (to scatter about, disperse) and διασπορά (diaspora) was thus understood as “a scattering".  Diaspora & diasporite are nouns, diasporan & diasporal are nouns & adjectives, diasporic is an adjective; the noun plural is diasporae, diasporai or diasporas.

The word diaspora must be lexicographically sexy because it has over many years attracted much interest from historians and etymologists, the conclusion of many that there may be “missing links” (ie, lost texts), this accounting for the murkiness of the transition from the verb of Antiquity to the idea of “diaspora” as it came to be understood.  There is confusion over the exact process of derivation from these old verbs to the contemporary concept(s) and although the Athenian historian and general Thucydides (circa 460–circa 400 BC) was for a long time cited as the first to use the word, this later was found to be a medieval misunderstanding (something not unusual) of his use of the verb σπείρω (speíro) (to sow).  The Greek word does appear in the Septuagint (the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew):

ἔσῃ ἐν διασπορᾷ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς βασιλείαις τῆς γῆς, esē en diaspora en pasais tais basileiais tēs gēs ("thou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth"). (Deuteronomy 28:25).  The word in the Hebrew was galuth (exile) although the translation in the King James edition of the Bible (KJV 1611) read: “The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth”.

οἰκοδομῶν Ἰερουσαλὴμ ὁ Kύριος καὶ τὰς διασπορὰς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπισυνάξει, oikodomōn Ierousalēm ho Kyrios kai tas diasporas tou Israēl episynaxē ("The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel"). (Psalms 147.2)

When the Bible was translated into Greek, the word was used of (1) the Kingdom of Samaria, exiled from Israel by the Assyrians between 740-722 BC, (2) Jews, Benjaminites and Levites exiled from the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians (587 BC) and (3) Jews exiled by the empire from Roman Judea (72 AD).  From that use can be traced the development of the word to its modern form when it can be used not only of populations of one land living in another but linguistic novelties such the “diasporic capitalism” which found it’s natural home under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and “diasporic cuisine” (such as the ubiquitous sushi which has colonized takeaway outlets east & west).  In the English-speaking world, the convention is that when capitalized, Diaspora refers specifically to the Jews (no longer does there seem to be a faction which insists it can be only of the event in 72 AD) while the word is un-capitalized for all other purposes.  Even then, controversy remains.  Because of the origins in which exile and expulsion were central to the experience, it is by some held that properly to be thought a diasporic, one must have been forced from one’s homeland but that seems now a minority position, someone in self-imposed exile, an economic migrant or a “mail order” bride all able to be included.  The foreign element does though remain essential; a refugee can be part of a diaspora whereas an IDP (internally displaced person) cannot, even if geographically, religiously or ethnically segregated, if in their homeland, they remain (an unfortunate) part of that community.  The first known instance of “diaspora” in an English text is thought to appear in 1594 in John Stockwood's (circa 1545-1610) translation of Commentarius in XII prophetas minores (Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets (1594)) by French theologian. Lambert Daneau Lambert Daneau (circa 1530-1595): “This scattering abrode of the Iewes, as it were an heauenly sowing, fell out after their returne from the captiuitie of Babylon. Wherevpon both Acts. 2. and also 1. Pet. 1. and 1. Iam. ver. 1. [sic] they are called Diaspora, that is, a scattering or sowing abrode.”  The word was used in 1825 in reference to Moravian protestants and in 1869 in reference to the dispersion of the Jews although in English, the word earlier used to convey the concept was the late fourteenth century Latinate dispersion.

Google Ngram for diaspora.  Google’s Ngrams are not wholly reliable as a record in the trend-line of a word’s use because (1) the sub-set of texts Google uses is slanted towards the scientific & academic and (2) the technical limitations imposed by the use of OCR (optical character recognition) when handling older texts of sometime dubious legibility (a process AI might improve).  Despite that, the trend of disapora’s increasing use in the post-war years seems solid.  In the nineteenth and into the twentieth century the word was used in theological and academic writing and there doesn’t appear to have been a great volume of argument about whether it exclusively should be of Jews and nor was that aspect of the history controversial in the post-war years when use of the word spiked, a product presumably of (1) the vast increase in migration from European nations, both within the area and to countries beyond and (2) the rapid expansion of the university sector in the West, a new cohort of academics suddenly available (and anxious) to study these populations and the effects, both on their homelands and the places in which they became resident.

The classical etymology and the idea of something leaving its original site and travelling to other places meant “diaspora” appealed to scientists coining technical terms.   In geology, the noun diaspore describes a natural hydrate of aluminium (also as diasporite, tanatarite, empholite or kayserite) which in addition to its other properties is famed for its stalactites and in crystal form, it exists as a gemstone.  Diaspore is a major component in the ore bauxite which is smelted into aluminium and the name was chosen to suggest “scatter”, an allusion to its decrepitation when heated.  In petrology (the study of certain rocks and their transformative processes), the related noun diasporite refers to the metamorphic rock containing diaspore.  In botany, diaspore is used to refer to seeds and fruit which operate in unison as a dispersal unit.

A very modern diasporic: Living in the United Arab Emirates, island designer Lindsay Lohan (pictured here in an empire line dress), is part of the western diaspora in Dubai.

A diasporite is a member of a diaspora (although the adjective diasporic has been used as a (non-standard) noun, the usual plural in English being diasporas, the alternatives diasporae & diasporai.  It’s certainly a loaded word, something perhaps based in the idea of exile in some form, a particular form of migration, displacement, scattering, exodus or dispersal although one also associated with the “escape” of the refugee.  In use, the connotation seems to be different from “expatriate” (often clipped to “expat”), another example of someone living in a foreign land and it’s hard to escape the impression the modern “diaspora” has become a Western construct and one which applies (almost) exclusively to religious, cultural or ethnic minorities and although diasporites increasingly are where they are by choice rather than an act of expulsion, the distinction remains and sometimes there are ethnic-specific adaptations such as Afrodiaspora (those of African extraction (and not necessarily birth)) living in other places.

Although the irregular immigration northward from South & Central America is trending up, the Indian diaspora remains the largest. 

By implication too, a disapora, sharing a common origin, culture or ethnicity tends to be thought a group which maintains a strong connection to the “homeland”, its culture and heritage. They may engage in cultural, social, or economic activities that tie them back to their original community.  By contrast, an expat seems almost always to be white and in some well-paid job, there perhaps for the long-term but probably still temporarily; the British lawyers and accountants in Hong Kong before the handover (1997) were “expats” whereas the workers from the Philippines employed as domestic help were a “diaspora”.  It’s a distinction which would have seemed both understandable and unremarkable under the Raj and it's hard to see its origin as based in anything but racialism.