anthropology
Az9993
NationNationalisms.pptxFourth Short Essay
600-800 words, due Sunday, November 12th by midnight.
For many decades, anthropologists tended to think of culture as a worldview shared by a group of people living in a particular place. It was considered perfectly clear reasonable to speak of the “culture of the Nuer” or of “German culture.”
Beginning in the later 20th century, our focus began to shift in ways that challenged some of the assumptions behind this consensus-based, place-bound view of culture: greater attention to the dynamics of power and inequality; increasing awareness of the importance of history and a new focus on divisions within societies and interconnections between them.
In your essay, discuss how paying attention to one or more of these aspects of social life requires us to adjust our understanding of culture. Draw on specific examples from two of the readings from this week (Abu-Lughod, Schepper-Hughes and Ernst) to support your argument.
Nation, Nationalisms & the Nation-State
The Idea of Nation
The idea nation not originally connected to the state as a form of political organization.
The Rise of Nationalism
In 18th & 19th century Europe we see rise of a new idea that state governments and boundaries should correspond with ethnic boundaries.
Important Ideas about Nationalism
Eric Hobsbawm & Terrence Ranger:
a sense ofnational identity and a national past
constructed through “invented traditions.”
Benedict Anderson: the nation as “Imagined Community.”
How Nations Invent Themselves
Antonio Gramsci: Why do some nation-states come together and come to seem unified, whereas others do not?
Contrasted two forms of state power:
Domination vs. Hegemony
Hegemony naturalizes the status quo, including inequality and oppression.
Ideology
Ideology refers to a set of ideas that reflect the perspectives and interest of specific, powerful groups in society, even though they come to be believed by many people from outside those groups.
Ideology is never flawless, though—since it reflects the perspectives and interests of a few it may become obvious to some of the disadvantaged that it is not working for them, does not reflect their reality.
James Scott: Hidden transcripts
