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Entry: Ethnonationalism and its Discontents (Part I) Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/ethnonationalism_and_its_discontents_part_i#18839 Post contents: This is a useful article and I thank the author. “Identity politics” is indeed the order of the day, both among the Reds and the Browns; indeed, as I have argued, the Reds have become Browns in emphasizing "racial" and "ethnic" identities. 1. Is ethnonationalism a tautology? Yes for Nationalists, no for cultural anthropologists. To explore meanings: i. Ethnos is Greek for tribe, and the Greeks and cultural anthropologists have a specific meaning: <b>common blood relation and connubial rights</b>. Pre-political societies are divided into family (in a household), clan (in a village), a collection of clans, and a tribe. Because of the incest taboo, the clan cannot intra-marry, so a social unit is needed to to allow marriage but keep some kind of blood identity. Thus the tribe, which rarely is larger than 3000 members. With the coming of the polis, the tribe become unnecessary, connubial rights existing in a much larger group, and the tribe eventually disappears. The polis, indeed, can be defined as the smallest political unit not based on blood or restricted connubial relations. ii. “Nationalism” is another name for <b>retribalization</b>, Richard Sennett’s invaluable concept. In fact, much ethnonationalism is has no basis, an attempt by the central state to justify its rule: e.g. Lincoln, Treitschke , Delcassé, Cecil, Rhodes, Cavour, Mazzini. As the central state weakens (high time!), this faux nationalism also weakens, and the citizenry breakup into smaller group identities, many of which are also without a basis. iii. A third concept is the one Tory conservatives find most congenial: <b>a people with a common history</b>, which I shall call a <b>Folk</b>. That Folk’s history makes for common Folkways. A Folk may have similar physical appearance, but other very different Folk may have the same physical appearance. E.g. pre-1808 US “Blacks” and West Indian Blacks look alike, but are very different Folk. On the other hand, we “Scots Irish” (Border Britons) are a mixture of at least 10 different physical groups, and thus look very different one from the other, yet we have the same Folkways. It should be added that Folkways can be shared. John Lukacs has observed the “patriot” (Folk) is flattered when others admire and imitate his own Folkways; the Nationalist (i.e.,ethnonationalist) is upset. 2. <i>WWI had nothing to do with ethnicity, or with the epochal movements of history.</i> Absolutely, 100%, and risibly wrong! Ethnonationalism caused both World Wars, the mess in the Balkans, the mess in the Near East, the mess in Ireland. Reason enough to oppose utterly “ethnonationalism”. 3. The author is quite right to see a dialectic between economic, communicative, and transport “globalization” on one hand, and neo-nationalism on the other. He could have also mentioned the decline of universal religions as a basis for unity in the face of secularization (a process that may be ending). The fact remains that the economy is global, the only market being the world market. In the New Venetian Age, poleis and Folker will be rich who can figure out what someone half way around the globe might like to buy. Nationalist tribes can’t do this and will live in destitution. Tertia via non est. Yet “cosmopolitans” usually end up to be people five miles wide and one inch deep. The key is for a polis to be both geo-mercantile and locally rooted. Tory conservatism is the ideology that can maintain this balance. Sent at: 2008 07 04