States and Nationalism
Title
States and Nationalism
Author
Herzfeld, Michael
Research Area
Social Institutions
Topic
Government Systems
Abstract
Nationalism, especially in the form that links national identity and statehood, is in its present form a relatively recent but highly successful and pervasive invention. Grounded in metaphors of shared blood and collective inheritance (including the idea of national culture as patrimony or heritage), it still displays unexpected staying power despite concern over its negative history as “ethnonationalism” and as the translation of superficially benign ideologies into doctrines of violent exclusion and genocide. Modern nation‐states, also unexpectedly, often encapsulate segmentary models of collective identity; nationalism may appear in everyday (“banal”) activities, the less respectable of which—as intimate zones of sociability—it may seek to hide behind official images of cultural and genetic homogeneity. Current research focuses on the practices that link idealized national identity to their realization and subversion in social and bodily experience and performance.