The Ethnic Originsof Nations

Anthony D. Smith

BlackwellPublishing

Contents

Preface ix

Note to Maps xi

Maps xii

Introduction 1

1 Are nations modern? 6

'Modernists* and 'primordialists' 7Ethnie, myths and symbols 13The durability of ethnic communities 16

Part I Ethnic communities in pre-modern eras

2 Foundations of ethnic community 21

The dimensions of ethnie 22Some bases of ethnic formation 32Structure and persistence of ethnie 41

3 Ethnie and ethnicism in history 47

Uniqueness and exclusion 47Ethnic resistance and renewal 50External threat and ethnic response 54Two types of ethnic mythomoteur 57

4 Class and ethnie in agrarian societies 69

The problem of 'social penetration· 70Military mobilization and ethnic consciousness 73Two types of ethnie 76Ethnic polities 89

viii Contents

5 Ethnic survival and dissolution 92

Location and sovereignty 93Demographic and cultural continuity 96Dissolution of ethnie 98Ethnic survival 105Ethnic socialization and religious renewal 119

Part II Ethnie and nations in the modern era

6 The formation of nations 129

Western revolutions 130Territorial and ethnic nations 134Nation-formation 138The ethnic model 144Ethnic solidarity or political citizenship? 149

7 From ethnie to nation 153

Politicization of ethnie 154The new priesthood 157Autarchy and territorialization 161Mobilization and inclusion 165The new imagination 169

8 Legends and landscapes 174

Nostalgia and posterity 174The sense of 'the past' 177Romantic nationalism as an 'historical drama' 179Poetic spaces: the uses of landscape 183Golden ages: the uses of history 191Myths and nation-building 200

9 The genealogy of nations 209

Parmenideans and Heraclitans 210The 'antiquity' of nations 212Transcending ethnicity? 214A world of small nations? 217Ethnic mobilization and global security 221

Notes 227

Bibliography 278

Index 303