Primordialism

Primordialism is the idea that nations or ethnic identities are fixed, natural and ancient.[1] Primordialists argue that individuals have a single ethnic identity which is not subject to change and which is exogenous to historical processes.[2][3] While primordialists assumptions are common in society and made implicitly in much academic research, primordialism is widely rejected by scholars of nationalism and ethnicity, as individuals can have multiple ethnic identities which are changeable and socially constructed.[2][4]

Primordialism can be traced philosophically to the ideas of German Romanticism, particularly in the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Johann Gottfried Herder.[5] For Herder, the nation was synonymous with language group. In Herder's thinking, language was synonymous with thought, and as each language was learnt in community, then each community must think differently. This also suggests that the community would hold a fixed nature over time.

Primordialism encountered enormous criticism after the Second World War, with many scholars of nationalism coming to treat the nation as a community constructed by the technologies and politics of modernity (see Modernism).[1]

Primordialism, in relation to ethnicity, argues that "ethnic groups and nationalities exist because there are traditions of belief and action towards primordial objects such as biological factors and especially territorial location".[6]

This argument relies on a concept of kinship, where members of an ethnic group feel they share characteristics, origins or sometimes even a blood relationship. Seen through the Igbos of Nigeria, following what they felt was their origin as descendants of the Jews.[7]

While acknowledging that "primordialism is admittedly not without its own flaws and problems," much like all conceptual and theoretical traditions in the social sciences, political scientist Khalil F. Osman[8] argues that "Primordialism, as an approach that stresses the workings of sub-national loyalties and solidarities operative in the collective consciousness of communities, is still capable of furnishing an epistemological and conceptual tool informing and opening up a unique space for inquiry and into social and political action."

See also

References
  1. Jack Hayward, Brian Barry, Archie Brown (2003) p 330
  2. Chandra, Kanchan (2012). Constructivist theories of ethnic politics. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-19-989315-7. OCLC 829678440.
  3. Murat Bayar, ‘Reconsidering Primordialism: an alternative approach to the study of ethnicity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32.9, (2009), pp. 1-20, (p. 2).
  4. Laitin, David D. (1998). Identity in formation : the Russian-speaking populations in the near abroad. Cornell University Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 0-8014-3495-5. OCLC 851108907.
  5. Dominique Jacquin-Berdal (2002) p 9
  6. Steven Gryosby (1994) ‘The verdict of history: The inexpungeable tie of primordiality huth – A response to Eller and Coughlan’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 17(1), pp. 164-171, (p. 168).
  7. Johannes, Harnischfeger, ‘Secessionism in Nigeria’, ECAS 4 conference, Uppsala, (2011) <https://web.archive.org/web/20120414214617/http://www.nai.uu.se/ecas-4/panels/41-60/panel-56/Johannes-Harnischfeger-Full-paper.pdf> [accessed 31/10/11] (p. 1).
  8. Khalil F. Osman, Sectarianism in Iraq: The Making of State and Nation since 1920 (London and New York: Routledge, 2015), p. 36.

Further reading
  • Jack Hayward, Brian Barry, Archie Brown (2003) The British Study of Politics in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-726294-5
  • Yehouda A. Shenhav (2006) The Arab Jews: a postcolonial reading of nationalism, religion, and ethnicity, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-5296-6
  • Dominique Jacquin-Berdal (2002) Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Horn of Africa: A Critique of the Ethnic Interpretation Edwin Mellen Press, ISBN 0-7734-6954-0
  • Bayar, Murat, ‘Reconsidering Primordialism: an alternative approach to the study of ethnicity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32.9, (2009), pp. 1–20
  • Gryosby, Steven, (1994) ‘The verdict of history: The inexpungeable tie of primordialityhuth – A response to Eller and Coughlan’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 17(1), pp. 164–171
  • Harnischfeger, Johannes, "Secessionism in Nigeria", ECAS 4 conference, Uppsala, (2011)
  • Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, ‘Primordialism’, in Nationalism and Political Identity, (Cornwall: MPG Books Ltd, 2003), pp. 19–35 (p. 19).
  • Sambanis, Nicholas, ‘Do ethnic and nonethnic Civil Wars have the same causes? A theoretical and Empirical Inquiry (Part 1)’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45 (2001), 259-282
  • Spencer, Steve, Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006)
  • Barth, Fredrik 1969: Ethnic Groups and Boundaries
  • Smith, Anthony D. 1998. Nationalism and modernism: a critical survey of recent theories of nations and nationalism, London; New York: Routledge.
  • Özkırımlı, Umut 2000. Theories of Nationalism, London: Macmillan Press.
  • Espiritu, Yen Le: Asian-American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities.
  • Appadurai, Arjun 1996: Modernity at Large
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