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Cultural Foundations of Nations: Hierarchy, Covenant and Republic
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"...At
first sight, the modern secular civic-republican nation appear; to
mark a rupture with any earlier historical form of the nation, just
as its nationalism seems so different in tone and style from earlier
covenantal nationalism... But in fact the modern republican forms
and ideologies of the nation build on the examples, and use many of
the symbols, values, and traditions, of earlier covenantal nations
and nationalisms. In this sense, modern nationalisms, starting with
the French Revolution, are best viewed as forms of a secular
religion of the people, alongside or in opposition to traditional
religions..." Anthony D Smith
Note by
tamilnation.org
See also
National Identity (Ethnonationalism in
Comparative Perspective) Anthony D Smith, 1991
"...Through the rediscovery of an ethnic past and the promise of
collective restoration of the former golden age, national
identity and nationalism have succeeded in arousing and
inspiring ethnic communities and populations of all classes,
regions, genders and religions, to claim their rights as
'nations', territorial communities of
culturally and
historically cognate citizens, in a
world of free and equal nations. Here is an identity and a
force with which even the strongest of states has had to come to
terms, and it is one that has shaped, and is likely to shape,
our world in the foreseeable future..."
more
ASEN: Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism
18th Annual Conference, April 2008
on Nationalism,
East and West: Civic and Ethnic Conceptions of Nationhood:
Abstracts of Conference Papers "...It has long been standard
in the field of nationalism studies to classify nations
according
to which principle serves to unify the nation. The
distinction between the Western, political type of nationalism
and the Eastern, genealogical variety of nationalism as
systematised by
Hans Kohn in 1944 has been used, extended, and adjusted by
scholars to conceptualise a framework of �inclusive� nationalism
based on citizenship and territory and �exclusive� nationalism
based on common ethnic ties and descent. This conference
sought to assess the continuing relevance of this dichotomy in
its various forms: its contribution to theoretical work on
nationalism, its usefulness for historical interpretation, and
its value for contemporary policy-making..." and generally
Civic Nationalism & Ethno Nationalism - False Opposites?
"...So-called civic nations like France, Canada, and the United
States may have become relatively open societies that offer
citizenship rights to all peoples, but they did not start out
that way. In each case, they began with restricted core
communities - be they white or Catholic or British or European -
and expanded outward. As a result, when we urge nationalists,
say in Bosnia or Kosovo, to follow our example and found nations
solely on the basis of shared political principles, we are in
fact urging them to do something that we never did ourselves..."
From the Introduction to Cultural Foundations of Nations -
Anthony D Smith, 2008..
"The purpose of this book is twofold: to trace the cultural
foundations of nations in different periods of history by means of
an analysis of their social and symbolic processes and cultural
resources, and to throw some light on the vexed questions of the
definition and dating of "the nation." The two questions are closely
linked, for both relate to the more fundamental issue of whether we
can speak of a single concept the nation, and if so, how it relates
to the various forms of nations in different periods of history.
These forms of national community, I shall argue, are dependent
on certain cultural traditions stemming from antiquity which have
shaped their members' ethos and sense of national identity. But,
before we can explore these traditions, we need to focus on
questions of definition and periodization. These, in turn, are
embedded in different theoretical approaches. In this introduction,
therefore, I shall first briefly outline the main approaches in the
field and their answers to t he problem of "dating the nation." This
will afford an entry into the basic issues of the definition of the
category of "nation" and the social tort-nation of the historical
forms of nations, which will in turn allow us t embark on a
historical sociology of the formation and persistence of national
communities in different historical periods.
A good starting place is the short article published by Walker
Connor in 1990, entitled "When is a Nation?" Here he argued that
scholars have always focused on the question of "what is a nation?,"
but had neglected the equally important and interesting question of
"when is a nation?" Even if the first was logically prior, of itself
a definition of the concept of the nation could not settle the
problem of dating specific nations. That required in addition
historical data, as well as a model or theory of nation formation.
And Connor supplied both a definition, and model of how modern
nations, at least, were formed.
For Walker Connor, nations are really self-aware ethnic groups.
They constitute the largest group formed on the basis of a
conviction on the part of their members that they are ancestrally
related. That they may not be ancestrally related, that they may
well stem from a variety of ethnic stocks, as is often the case, is
irrelevant. It is not factual history, but felt history that counts
in the making of nations. That is why modern nationalists liken the
nation to a large family, and that is why their appeals to "blood"
always strike a chord with the members of the nation. How does the
nation form from its ethnic base? For Connor, this may be a
long-drawn-out process, for nations emerge in stages. But
modernization, because it brings many groups into close and regular
contact, acts as a powerful catalyst; and ideas of popular
sovereignty and the equation of alien rule with illegitimate rule
have since the French Revolution excited successive ethnic groups to
aspire to become independent nations. However, we cannot really
speak of nations coming into being until the majority of their
members know not just who they are not, but who they are; and, more
important, feel that they belong to the nation and participate in
its life. In a democracy, that means that we cannot speak of a
nation until the majority have been enfranchised � something that
did not begin to occur until the end of the nineteenth or early
twentieth century. Ethnic groups may be a "fixture of history,"
found in every period, but existing nations are modern and really
quite recent.
From the Conclusion
"...At first sight, the modern secular civic-republican nation
appear; to mark a rupture with any earlier historical form of the
nation, just as its nationalism seems so different in tone and style
from earlier covenantal nationalism. This parallels the way in which
the republican patriotism of classical antiquity introduced a quite
different cultural tradition, collective sentiment, and model of
community from those round about. But in fact the modern republican
forms and ideologies of the nation build on the examples, and use
many of the symbols, values, and traditions, of earlier covenantal
nations and nationalisms. In this sense, modern nationalisms,
starting with the French Revolution, are best viewed as forms of a
secular religion of the people, alongside or in opposition to
traditional religions.
What gives them their radical character is their disavowal of
hierarchy and a concomitant revolutionary programme against the
ancien regime in which sacred monarchy played so large a part. But,
as the fashion for oath-swearing ceremonies and sacred compacts
demonstrated, no such antagonism existed towards covenantal nations
and nationalisms.
In fact, many elements which were ultimately derived from the Old
Testament Covenant remained embedded in several European and Western
nationalisms. Even some of the traditions of hierarchical nations
like monarchy have been retained, if in attenuated form, and, along
with covenantal traditions, they pose continuing challenges to the
global progress of the republican nation.
Similarly, myths and memories of hierarchical or covenantal
"golden ages" may inspire alternative destinies among wide sections
of the community. Hence, the often multistranded character of many
nations which can be read as so many palimpsests of different
collective pasts and cultural traditions..."
