Re: foundations of the nations

thomas w kavanagh (tkavanag@INDIANA.EDU)
Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:55:09 -0500

Hi John.
On Tue, 13 Aug 1996 jhs14@cornell.edu wrote:

> According to some authors, the current tension between ethnicity and
> nationalism is the result of a larger clash between tradition and
> modernity.

If, by "ethnicity" those scholars mean what used to be called
"tribalism", as in "tribalism versus nationalism," and are analyzing that
'ethnicity' or 'tribalism' as 'traditional' versus 'modern nationalism', I
beleive they are missing the basic point of political anthropology :
tribes/ethnoses *are* just as modern as the traditional nation states.

tk