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G�khan BACIK*
After the end of the cold war a new wave of expectations
has come to the forefront. Accordingly, many substantial concepts and
institutions are, and will be, changing. Of all discussed concepts and
institutions, some of them, such as nation states, are now part of the
ongoing discussions. However, considering the various sides of these ongoing
discussions, one should note that the main discussion around the concept
of identity - identification theory - constitutes a large portion of the
above-mentioned disputation. Why? The difficulty of giving a clear answer
to this question is obvious. However, we may refer to the nature of the
same process. Accordingly, the process that we are talking about includes
some contradictions. These contradictions intensify with the definition
of the identity formation. Consequently, the same process and the developments
may give way to some contradicting results. For example, with the positive
effect of globalisation we are talking about the de-functioning of nation
states. At the same time, however, the role of sub-identities, such as
ethnic ones, is increasing paradoxically. From this stance, we have two
independent tendencies: one that increases the commonalities of the world
nations, and the other one that makes much more clearly the differences
of the sub-identities.
Within these margins of the global line of action, some concepts deserve
a re-evaluation since they have become the determining facts of our political/international
system. We have had these concepts for more than centuries, and we will
continue to have them in the future. However, what makes them important
is the changing role/meaning of these 'old,' or known, concepts/values.
In the words of Sir Ernest Barker:
"The self-consciousness of nations is a product
of the nineteenth century. This is a matter of the first importance. Nations
were already there; they had indeed been there for centuries. But it is
not the things which are simply 'there' that matter in human life. What
really and finally matters is the thing that is apprehended as an idea,
and, as an idea, is vested with emotion until it becomes a cause and a
spring of action. In the world of action apprehended ideas are alone electrical;
and a nation must be an ideal as well as a fact before it can become a
dynamic force."(1)
The same, said above for the self-consciousness, can be said for the role
of ethnic identities. Ethnic identities have always been effective. People
from the very beginning have identified themselves and their societies
to other people by using their ethnic-oriented motives and values. However,
as it was mentioned in Barker's words, the set of ethnic values, though
they have always been an inseparable part of society, have become much
more active in the recent decade . To re-emphasize the emerging role of
ethnic identity studies as well one can easily read Esnam's introductory
sentences to his book, Ethnic Politics:
"Glance at headings in the early 1990s: pitched
battles between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia, between Sinhalese
and Tamils in Sri Lanka, between Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria,
Read of IRA bombings in London, of threatened genocide by Arabs against
Dinka in Sudan, of riots involving African-Americans, Whites, and Koreans
in Los Angeles. The ethnically defined successor states of the defunct
Soviet Union contain restive minorities whose competing claims and status
must be confronted and managed. Canada is threatened with the peaceful
secession in Quebec, led by the French-speaking majority, now "masters
in their own homeland"; India is coping with a violent Sikh secessionist
movement in the Punjab; the minority Sunni Arab regime in Iraq struggles
to maintain control over rebellious Kurds and Shi'a Muslims; Belgium has
periodically tedious negotiations between representatives of its Walloon
and Flemish peoples; French and German public affairs are roiled by conflicts
over the status of large immigrant diasporas,. The catalog of brutally
violent and of more or less civic manifestations of ethnic conflict includes
all continents."(2)
The Subject
The role of ethnicity in the process of the construction of national identity
can be evaluated from various points of view. Before dealing with the
role of ethnicity in this process, we should study the theories of national
identity. By studying various theories on the problem of national identity,
one can try to analyse the role of ethnicity. In general, there are two
types of nationalism typologies. These can be listed as ethnic nationalism
and civic nationalism.(3) In each case, the role of ethnicity emerges
in a different way. In the following pages, each typology of nationalism
will be discussed.
Ethnic Nationalism
In the words of Charles A. Kupchan, "Ethnic nationalism defines nationhood
in terms of lineage. The attributes that members of an ethnically defined
national grouping share include physical characteristic, culture, religion,
language, and a common ancestry. Individuals of a different ethnicity,
even if they reside in and are citizens of the nation state in question,
do not become part of the national grouping."(4) According to Anthony
Smith, nations always need ethnic elements.(5) Examining the definition
from the origin of the words, "the word nation comes from the Latin
and, when first coined, clearly conveyed the idea of common blood ties."(6)
The word nation is derived from the "past participle of the verb
nasci, meaning to be born," yet "the Latin noun, nationem, means
breed or race."(7) (Remembering the word nascent we still use today
in English) For example, at some medieval universities, a student's nationem
designated the sector of the country from whence he came. Again following
the history of the word, in the late thirteenth century when the word
was first introduced to English, it was with its primary connotation of
a blood related group. It was not an exceptional case to correlate nation
with blood in history. The famous motto of "think with your blood"
(Bismarck) represents succinctly this dimension. Accordingly, even in
the last century, some understood race as a synonym for nation. In ethnic
nationalism, the set of values has the priority over all other kinds of
references. Again, in ethnic nationalism it is not important how you feel
yourself. The only label you deserve is what you are with the blood you
bear. The British poet Swinburne (1837-1909) once wrote:
Not with dreams but with blood and with iron,
Shall a nation be moulded to last. (8)
On the other hand, when considering some concrete samples the difference
may be seen best in a comparative look at the cases of France and Germany.
According to Rogers Brubaker, "If the French understanding of nationhood
has been state centred and assimilationist, the German understanding has
been Volk-centred and differentialist."(9) In the French model, the
word assimilation is very important. The adoption of any typology of nationalism
also influences the construction of state and nation relations. In a state
where ethnic nationalism is the key word, many would think that their
state created their nation. The ethnonationalist typology in one way strengthened
the role of the state against the people. Within this context, can we
use the formula of ethnic nation? Milton Esman defines an ethnic nation
as, "a politicised ethnic community whose spokesman demand control
over what they define as their territorial homeland, either in the form
of substantial autonomy or complete independence." (10)
The ethnic way of nation formation produces several hard conclusions.
In an ethnic group identity construction, "Outsiders are naturally
not comparable to insiders: the others cannot be converted or adopted,
they are not guilty for committing a wrong choice, they cannot be educated,
developed or even understood, they are simply unalterably different. This
difference often conveys inferiority and danger at the same time. Strangers
are frequently perceived as demonic and a threat to the collectivity."(11)
It is a widely shared belief that ethnic nationalism is, in nature, closed
to the social cleavages. In other words, ethnic nationalism may be conflict-producing
mould when a country includes several ethnic groups. To be understood,
one may deal with some concrete samples. In the process of nation building,
the chosen typology affects the stability in such a country. According
to Bloom, "By nation-building we mean both the formation and establishment
of the new state itself as a political entity, and the processes of creating
viable degrees of unity, adaptation, achievement, and a sense of national
identity among the people."(12) However, the same process should
create the psychological creation of the nation as well.(13) As mentioned
several times before, the typology adopted in the national identity construction
is important. Since there may exist several other ethnic groups within
a country, the nature of nationalism typology would produce its own structural
results. Before looking at concrete samples, one should be reminded that
the nation building, or the process of national identity construction,
has no end. Why? To quote William Bloom, "There are always individuals
and ethnic groups who, for one reason or another based in previous identifications,
do not identify with the nation-state."(14) In this regard, the Kurdish
question may be analysed as a good case. It may be rejected, however,
from various points of view that the process of nation building in the
Turkish case has been somehow ethnic oriented. In 1925, the Turkish Minister
of Justice, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, made a well-known declaration: "Only
the Turkish nation has the privilege of demanding national rights in this
country. There is no possibility that other ethnic groups' demands for
such a right will be recognised. There is no need to hide the truth. The
Turks are the sole owners and the sole notables of this country. Those
who are not of Turkish origin have only one right: to serve and to be
the slaves without question of the noble Turkish nation."(15) This
quotation may be disputed by some since these sentences might not reflect
the general opinion of the Turkish state. However, re-reading the words
of Bozkurt, one should notice some interesting facts. Bozkurt used very
interesting words while formulating his opinions. His choices includes
"national rights," "other ethnic groups," "noble
nation," etc. In other words, Bozkurt made a plain formula of ethnic
nationalism by using some well-known words from the terminology of nationalism.
"This view," writes Jack Eller, "eventually gave way to
a race ideology, however, and Turkey was to be the national home of this
race exclusively."(16)
Ethnic nationalism, along with the above-mentioned conclusions, also gives
way to some indirect social results. Of all of these results, cultivating
a myth of ethnic election is worthy to mention. The myth of an elected
nation may emerge from various historical and social conditions. For example,
a pure myth of ethnic election that was seen in the case of National Socialism
in Germany is not the same that has been seen in the case of Israel. What
is the rationale of this feeling? Is it religion ("So, now obey me
and keep my agreement. Do this, and you will be my own possession, chosen
from all nations" The Old Testament, Exodus 19/5), or history (golden
age)? Anthony Smith explains the roots of this feeling from a functional
point of view. Accordingly, "The members of ethnic community must
be made to feel, not only that they form a single super-family, but that
their historic community is unique, that they possess what Max Weber called
'irreplaceable culture values,' that their heritage must be preserved
against inner corruption and external control, and that the community
has a sacred duty to extend its culture values to outsiders."(17)
This social feeling is also a contemporary fact in various societies.
Gil Merom, in Israel's National Security and the Myth of Exceptionalism,
states that "members of social groups tend to develop their sense
of collective identity on the basis of two kinds of perceptions: perceptions
of shared attributes within the group, and perceptions of the difference
between these attributes and those of other social groups."(18) The
case is also valid for Israel since the Israeli people perceive themselves
as am nivchar (chosen by God), yet they perceive themselves as the la'goyim
(light unto the nations). This perception has a Biblical background and
tradition. David Ben-Gurion, in 1950, underlines this perception succinctly,
"We do not fit the general pattern of humanity."(19) In another
speech he formulates the difference as follows, "Our supreme quality,
our intellectual and moral advantage, singles us out even today, as it
did throughout the generations." (20)
Civic Nationalism
"Civic nationalism defines nationhood in terms of citizenship and
political participation. Members of a national grouping that is defined
in civic terms share participation in a circumscribed political community,
common political values, a sense of belonging to the state in which they
reside, and, usually, a common language." Thus, "A citizen is
a national, regardless of ethnicity and lineage."(21) Looking at
another definition by Sasja Tempelman, "Civic construction of collective
identity, here the core of collective identity is not natural, but is
seen as a historically developed continuous flux, although some parts
are more robust than others. As most rules are implicit and difficult
to separate from the praxis of everyday life, boundaries are diffuse and
undefined." Consequently, "outsiders can become members of the
civic community, but only by participating in the local practices and
institutions and by slowly adopting the customs and even the modes of
reflexive criticisms thereof."(22)
In civic nationalism, the set of givens is not important as it is in ethnic
nationalism. In the words of Michael Ignatieff, "The civic nation
is a community created by the choice of individuals to honour a particular
political creed."(23) There are naturally some sets of values and
principles, however, that are not given but constructed by the will of
people in the course of history. The widely celebrated formula of Benedict
Anderson, imagined communities, summarises the core of civic nationalism.
From his point of view, nationalism (and other related definitions such
as nation-ness, nationality as well) is a cultural artefact of a particular
kind.(24) So a nation may easily be named as a political project. It does
not depend on a given set of values, but it is the outcome of our perceptions
and imaginations. It is worth quoting at length the words of Wicker here
to summarise the core approaches of civic nationalism:
"...there is no such thing as an ethnic, cultural,
or national essence; formations which appear as ethnic groups, as cultures,
or as nations should no longer be considered as supra-subjective wholes
that generate and determine human action. Instead, they should be interpreted
as the products of history, therefore as resulting from concrete acts
that are motivated by people's interests. Such formations are constructions
naturalised by social actors in the interest of their own social standing;
only then are they equipped with a coherent history and a homogenous,
territorial character. What social scientists are expected to do according
to this theoretical canon, then, is to examine which social actors participate
in generating such concepts of ethnicity, culture and nation, and to locate
the strategies and processes of construction that are used to make such
totalities become real. Thus like social classes ethnic groups, cultures
and nations are thought to exist not in themselves but only for themselves."(25)
In the same regard, it is an expected outcome that in civic nationalism
the other ethnic groups may feel better since the bounding element is
not related to blood or race. We can also compare ethnic and civic nationalism
in a table produced by Tempelman: (26)
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Ethnic Identity Formation
There are several contending theories about ethnic identity formation.
Considering the basic tenets, these theories resemble those of nationalism.
Delineating theories of ethnic identity formation, the role of ethnic
identity in the process of national identity formation may be enlightened.
Whatever the case, at the core all kinds of grouping identity formations
may be studied on the basis of collective identity. From what kind of
process a collective identity comes to being is essentially important
for us. Bernhard Giesen, in Intellectuals and the Nation, describes the
process of collective identity construction. The construction of boundaries
is the primary stage since "they mark the difference between inside
and outside, strange and familiar, relatives and non-relatives, friends
and enemies, culture and nature, enlightenment and barbarism."(27)
Another topic is the depiction of a mediating realm. "The mediating
realm is the location of identity in perception and consciousness: the
centre, the present, the subject."(28) Original referent is the set
of other important facts to construct a collective identity. By doing
so, "collective identity can become the object and theme of a particular
reflexivity that locates identity within the structure of an interpretation
of the world."(29) The following duty is the definition of code,
process and situation. "Codes are purely symbolic structures, in
no way bound to a location in space or temporal limits. Processes, by
contrast, are ordered not only symbolically, but also temporarily. And
situations, besides having a symbolic structuring and a temporal dimension,
also include a spatial location."(30) The process of this construction
reaches to the end by following stages of the situational construction
of difference and self-production of collectivity.
The word "ethnicity" has an interesting historical background.
Its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary occurred in 1972.
According to Eriksen, "Its first usage is attributed to the American
sociologist, David Riesman, in 1953."(31) However, the old version
of the same word, ethnos, meant heathen or pagan. Again according to Eriksen,
"The word was used in this sense in English from the mid-fourteenth
century until the mid-eighteenth century, when it gradually began to refer
to racial characteristics."(32) During the Second World War, the
same term depicted the Jews, Italians, Irish and other people in the United
States. But, considering its various usage in the several texts during
the course of history, it seems much more interesting. Looking from the
perspective of language - especially English - there are some problems.
"It comes from the Greek term ethnos, and survives as a fairly common
intellectual's word in modern French, ethnie, with the associated adjective
ethnique. The possible noun expressing what it is you require to be ethnique,
ethnicite is still not common in modern French. The adjective exists in
modern English as ethnic, with a suffix added to give ethnicity. One of
the problems for English speakers is that the concrete noun from which
it is derived does not exist in our language. We have no ethnos, no ethnie."(33)
Surprisingly, in the very early using of the word, it was not applied
to people. In Homer, "It was used to describe large undifferentiated
groups of either animals or warriors. Frequently, etnos is used for an
animal multitude (bees, birds, or flies)..." Following Tonkin and
the others:
"Aeschylus uses ethnos to describe the Furies and
also the Persians. Sophocles uses it for wild animals. Pindar, again in
very early recorded use, employs the term to describe groups of like people,
but again people whose location or conduct put them in some way outside
the sphere of Greek social normality. Aristotle uses it for foreign or
barbarous nations, as opposed to Hellenes. When Heredotus describes the
Greeks in the famous passage ethnos is not term he employs. Romans writing
in Greek under the Empire, use the term to describe a province, or the
provinces in general-areas that were, that is, not Rome."(34)
On this basis the question to be answered is, What is an ethnic group?
According to Esman, "Ethnic identity refers to a community that claims
common origin, often including common descent or fictive kinship; that
possesses distinctive and valued cultural markers in the form of customs,
dress, and especially language; and that traces a common history and expects
to share a common destiny."(35) According to Adrian Hastings, the
same term refers to "the common culture whereby a group of people
share the basics of life -their cloth and clothes; the style of houses;
the way they relate to domestic animals and to agricultural land; the
essential work which shapes the functioning of a society and how roles
are divided between men and women; the way hunting is organized; how murder
and robbery are handled; the way defence is organised against threatening
intruders; the way property and authority are handed on; the rituals of
birth, marriage and death; the customs of courtship; the proverbs, songs,
lullabies; shared history and myth;, and the beliefs in what follows death
and in God, gods or other spirits."(36) One can also list several
other definitions. Instead, to be sure, one should consider the related
theories on the construction of ethnic groups. To a large degree, there
are two contending theories of ethnic identity formation: primordialist
approach and instrumentalist approach. It may be argued as well that,
with the globalisation movement, another type of approach has come to
the forefront, which is called universal mode. In this paper this emerging
mode is omitted.
Primordialism: The Story of Given Identity
The primordialist approach claims that an ethnic group emerges from given
features.(37) Seen from this point of view, they are the natural, given
or unchangeable facts that determine the formation of an ethnic group.
"A primordial attachment means one that stems from the givens - or,
more precisely, as culture is inevitably involved in such matters, the
assumed givens - of social existence (immediate contiguity and kin connection
mainly), but beyond them the given-ness that stems from being born into
a particular religious community, speaking a particular language, or even
a dialect of a language, and following particular social practices."(38)
However, one should ask here, What are these givens? Again quoting Greetz,
the set of givens can be enlisted as follows: assumed blood ties, race,
language, region, religion, and custom.(39) All these make up the set
of primordial boundaries. "Primordial boundaries cannot be moved
socially, and passing them is extremely difficult."(40) Primordialism
has been criticised by various scholars. Of these scholars, Jack Eller
and Reed Coughlan wrote the widely known article that disfavoured primordialism.
In their article, The Poverty of Primordialism, they rejected the basic
tenets of the primordialist approach. According to them, one cannot claim
the existence of a set of given facts that have no social source because
all concepts that make up any kind of group identity are socially constructed.
They also criticised the ineffability and affectivity of the primordialist
school. In their conclusion, they claimed, "primordialism is a bankrupt
concept for the analyses and description of ethnicity."(41) However,
the discussions never find the end. One of the well-known platforms for
all these discussions has been the Ethnic and Racial Studies journal.
Shortly after the appearance of The Poverty of Primordialism, Steven Grosby
responded by another famous article, The Verdict of History: The Inexpungeable
Tie for Primordiality- a response to Eller and Coughlan.(42) Grosby, in
his response, claimed that Eller and Coughlan misunderstood the primordialist
approach. According to Grosby, there are a set of given values by using
those of an individual to participate in history. "The individual
participates in these given, a priori bounded pattern. The patterns are
the legacy of history; they are tradition. Ethnic groups and nationalities
exist because there are traditions of belief and action towards primordial
objects such as biological features and especially territorial location."(43)
Including the author of these pages, most scholars and students of ethnicity
have come to state that collective identity is a constructed formation.
However, is it to mean there is no given value or suchlike fact? Etienne
Balibar asks, "How can ethnicity be produced? And how can it be produced
in such a way that it does not appear as fiction, but as the most natural
of origins?"(44) He makes a conclusion that would be appreciated
by most of the primordialists. "History shows us that there are two
great competing routes to this: language and race."(45)
How can I be exactly true when I claim I am a Turk? My father can be a
Turk. So is my mother. However, who can claim my grandfather's father
was also a Turk? Is it satisfying proof to claim an origin? As the time
goes on, the origins also mix with each other. In this stance it is meaningless
to claim one's origin since even we do not know his name, i.e., my grandfather's
father. In this regard, even the common descent of the ethnic group is
a myth.(46) Such an approach creates a well-known solution: "Ethnicity
is both primordial and instrumental."(47)
Instrumentalism: The Story of Constructed Identity
No matter what my origin is, no matter what my 'given' features are, it
is my own right to choose the group in which I would participate.(48)
This introductory sentence summarises the instrumentalist approach. In
other words, the instrumentalist 'school' claims that there is a strong
flexibility in the course of history about the formation of ethnic identities.
Yet according to the instrumentalist approach, there is no real other.
The boundaries are extremely flexible. There is a normal interaction with
the other groups. The instrumentalist approach rejects the alleged roles
of race, origin, and even language. The instrumentalists say to us: You
are what you feel yourself. Instrumentalism does not reject the subjective
differences. It is noteworthy to remember here De Vos' definition. He
once wrote, "Ethnicity is a sense of ethnic identity that consists
of the subjective, symbolic or emblematic use of by a group of people...of
any aspect of culture, in order to differentiate themselves from the other
groups." (49) Accordingly, one should notice the subjective choice
rather than determining hard givens. Therefore, any kind of distinguishing
feature of an ethnic group fails to endure, but this failure does not
always mean the failure of the survival of an ethnic group. "Despite
the fact that European culture, civilisation, and science have, for centuries,
been dominated increasingly by the three languages, English, French, and
German," writes Brass, "this has not prevented the growth of
linguistic diversity in Europe from 16 (standard) languages in 1800 to
30 in 1900 and to 53 in 1937." (50)
This time, since one accepts the instrumentalist approach, there are other
questions to be answered. Who can challenge/lead this process of formation?
What is the role of the leader(s)? On the other hand, instrumentalism
is not the total rejection of the concept of given. There may be really
a given descent; however, it is not a matter of fact for the instrumentalist.
It may be actually existing or putative. A good example illuminates the
crux of the problem. "Although the French are popularly believed
to be of Celtic descent and the Germans of Teutonic origin there are scientists,
like M. Jean Finot, who maintain that if it is absolutely necessary to
attribute Celtic descent to any European people, that people must be not
the French but the Germans, while the French, on the other hand, are more
Teutonic in blood than the Germans."(51) The crux of the problem
is personal/social feeling and perception. To Weber there may be a subjective
belief in common descent, "however it does not matter whether or
not an objective blood relationship exists."(52) To Schermerhorn,
the belief of common descent may be putative rather than real, but what
must exist is "some consciousness of kind among membership of the
group."(53) Needless to say, this consciousness may be gained or
re-gained again by the others.(54) It means we have turned to Berghe's
point. The definition is both instrumental and primordial.
Nationalism-National Identity and Ethnic Identity
Formation
In the last part of my article, the relationship between nationalism-national
identity and ethnic identity formation will be under consideration. What
kind of relationship can be found between the formation of an ethnic identity
and that of national identity? The answer depends on the typology of nationalism
valid in a country. For example considering Connor's classification of
nations, in the type of proper nation - the largest human grouping characterised
by a myth of common ancestry - the role of ethnic identity formation,
for example rather than civic, is naturally important.(55) If there were
a dominant group in a country that makes the majority of the total population,
the ethnic identity formation of this group eventually would shape the
national identity formation process of the nation.(56) If this majority
chooses an ethnic nationalism, it directly produces social disturbances
for the minority/other groups. In a proper nation where ethnic nationalism
is chosen, there should be some difficulties for the other group/groups.
In ethnic nationalism, the most principle given is the common descent
myth. This myth, beyond its conventional functions, creates some other
important situations. In congruent with the common myth discourse, a national
history is constructed. The national state has its national history despite
the fact that history has no exceptional offers for nations, groups or
persons. Any nation's members adopting ethnic nationalism want to believe
that they have existed since the very early stages as a political or social
unit. The myth of endurance is important: We were/are and will be having
our cohesive unit/nation.
On the other hand, if we are talking about a proper nation and the other
group, we should check some other related subjects. In a country where
there is a majority depending on a common ethnic formation and where there
is a minority depending on a different ethnic formation, the process may
become drastically different. The clash between two sides may give way
to the revolutionary stage thenceforward and may produce a cessation.
In which circumstances does an ethnic group become state-claiming? To
me, the first condition is the implementation of ethnic nationalism, since
only under civic nationalist policies several groups may live together.
According to Kuchan, there are several conditions that foster the state
claims of ethnic groups: loss of state capacity (including both political
and economic), treatment of minorities (how the majority, proper nation,
interacts with its minority citizens), historical rivalries and hatreds
(waiting to happen, the fragmentation of Yugoslavia), contagion and emulation,
social change and identity formation.(57) On the other side, the response
of states against such state-claiming ethnic groups also differs from
time to time. No state welcomes any kind of challenge towards its unity.
However, if there is such an acute problem, there lies two natural ways.
"It can attempt to eradicate (genocide, expulsion, population exchanges,
use of power: Nazi Germany, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Stalin Russia: Greek-Turkish
exchanges in the 20s) the ethnic differences in its territory, or it can
choose to accommodate the demands that stem from these differences."(58)
In sum ethnic identity formation brings out its social and political outcomes
due to the nature of the process, social and political environment and
actors. Hence, in each different case it plays a different role. If it
is a country that has taken over the legacy of an empire like Turkey,
the relationship between ethnic identity formation and national identity
formation may somehow be perplexed since one here can not talk about a
single ethnic identity formation. On the other hand ethnic nationalisms
usually prefer to adopt the historical legacy of former ethnic identity
formation since they usually depend on a historical ethnic identity what
becomes later proper nation. In civic nationalism form, since the commons
do not only include givens, on year by year base the legacy of ethnic
identity formation(s) incline to become socially extinct. In various countries
such as the United States and Canada where migration has been a historical
event, talking about an ethnic formation base is hardly possible since
to set up such a 'common' among various groups is really difficult.
* Lecturer, Department
of International Relations, Fatih University.
Notes
1) Cited in Walker Connor Connor, Ethnonationalism:
The Quest for Understanding, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994),
p. 4.
2) Milton J. Esman, Ethnic Politics, (London: Cornell Univ. Press, 1994),
p. 1.
3) Needless to say, there are several other classifications as well. For
example in James Kellas' classification there are ethnic and social nationalism.
The latter may be named also civic. According to Kellas social nationalism
"based on a shared culture, but not on common descent. It is inclusive
in the sense that anyone can adopt that culture and join the nation, even
if that person is not considered to be a member of the ethnic nation."
See: James G. Kellas, The Politics of Nationalism and Ethnicity, ( London:
Macmillan Press, 1998), p. 65
4) Charles A. Kupchan, " Introduction: Nationalism Resurgent",
in Charles A. Kupchan (ed), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe,
(London: Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 4.
5) Anthony D. Smith, Milli Kimlik, (�stanbul: �letisim, 1994), p. 71.
6) For this and following quotations on the history of the word nation:
Walker Connor Connor, Ethnonationalism The Quest for Understanding, (New
Jersey: Princeton, 1994), pp. 94-95.
7) Random House Webster's Dictionary writes: [1250-1300; ME < L natio
birth, people, nation = na-, base of nasci to be born + -tio - TION] Derived
words --na'tion-hood , n. --na'tion-less, adj.
8) Cited in Walker Connor, op cit., p. 210.
9) Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood, (Cambridge: Harvard Univ.
Press, 1992), pp. 1-3.
10) Milton J. Esman, Ethnic Politics, (London: Cornell Univ. Press, 1994),
p. 27.
11) Sasja Tempelman, "Constructions of Cultural Identity: Multiculturalism
and Exclusion", Political Studies, XLVII, 1999, p. 18.
12) William Bloom, Personal Identity, National Identity And International
Relations, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 55.
13) Ibid., p. 56.
14) Ibid., p. 63.
15) Cited in Robert Olson, The Kurdish Question and Turkish-Iranian Relations
From World War I to 1998, (Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1998), pp. 18-19.
16) Jack David Eller, From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological
Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict, (Michigan: The University
of Michigan Press, 1998), p. 171.
17) See: Anthony D. Smith, "Chosen peoples: Why ethnic groups survive",
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 440-449.
18) Gil Merom, "Israel's National Security and the Myth of Exceptionalism",
Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 114, No. 3. http://www.ciaonet.org/olj/psq/psq_fall99.html
19) Ibid.
20) Ibid.
21) Kupchan, op cit., p. 4.
22) Tempelman, op cit., p. 18.
23) Cited in Bernard Yack, "The Myth of Civic Nation", in Ronald
Beiner (ed.), Theorizing Nationalism, (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1999), p. 104
24) Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities Reflections on the Origin
and Spread of Nationalism, (London-New York: Verso, 1991), p. 4.
25) Hans-Rudolf Wicker, "Introduction: Theorising Ethnicity and Nationalism"
in H. R. Wicker, Rethinking Nationalism & Ethnicity The Struggle For
Meaning and Order in Europe, (Oxford-New York, Berg, 1997), p. 1.
26)Tempelman, op cit., p. 19.
27)For all quotations mentioned in my text from Giesen
on the formation of collective identity see: Bernhard Giesen, Intellectuals
and the Nation Collective Identity in a German Axial Age, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 13-23.
28) Ibid.
29) Ibid.
30) Ibid.
31) Montserrat Guibernau and John Rex, The Ethnicity Reader Nationalism,
Multiculturalism and Migration, (Oxford: Polity Press, 1999), p. 33.
32) Ibid.
33) Elisabeth Tonkin, Maryon McDonald, Malcom Chapman, History and Ethnicity,
(London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 11-12.
34) Ibid.
35) Esman, op cit., pp. 15-16.
36) Adrian Hastings, The Construction of Nationhood Ethnicity, Religion
and Nationalism, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 167.
37) It is apt here to remember Fredrik Barth's famous equation, a race
= a culture = a language = a society = a unit. Primordialism depends on
such determining and fix equations.
38) Clifford Geertz, "The Integrative Revolution", in C. Geertz,
(ed) Old Societies and New States, (New York: Free Press, 1963), pp. 109-110.
39) Ibid.
40) Giesen, op cit., p. 27.
41) This famous article appears in Ethnic and Racial Studies. See: Jack
Eller and Reed Coughlan, "The Poverty of Primordialism", Ethnic
and Racial Studies, (Vol. 16, No. 2, 1993.
42) Steven Grosby, "The Verdict of History: The Inexpungeable Tie
for Primordiality- a response to Eller and Coughlan," Ethnic and
Racial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1994.
43) Ibid
44) Etienne Balibar, "The Nation Form: History and Ideology",
in Etienne Balibar & Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, Nation, Class Ambiguous
Identities, (London-New York, Verso, 1991), p. 96.
45) Ibid
46 Pierre Van Den Berghe, "Does Race Matter?", Nations and Nationalism,
Vol. 1, No. 3, 1995, p. 360.
47)Ibid.
48) Remembering the fix equations of Barth (see footnote 31) in instrumentalist
approach there is no kind of such equations. So nobody knows what a race
equals. In other words a race = ? (undeterminable) since the time and
the conditions may determine several alternative results/identifications.
49) Cited in Paul R. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism, (London: Sage,
1991), pp. 18-19.
50) Ibid.
51) This paragraph is from Bernard Joseph. Cited in Conner, op cit., p.
215.
52) Eller, op cit., pp. 12-13.
53) Ibid
54) When it comes to consciousness one should remember that beyond this
traditional debate over the approaches of primordialism and instrumentalism,
some claim the real reason of such distinctions have been even class/religion/sect
consciousness.
55) Eller, op cit., p. 18.
56) For this definition see: Ma Shu-yun, "Reciprocal Relation Between
Political Development and Ethnic Nationalism", Social Science Journal,
1999, (Vol. 36, No. 2), pp. 369-379.
57) Kuchan, op cit., pp. 8-10.
58) Martijn A. Roessingh, Ethnonationalism and Political Systems in Europe,
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1996), p. 26.
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