Culture, community and territory: The politics of ethnicity and nationalism

Social scientists and historians usually focus on the impact of politics on ethnicity and nationalism, and their use for elites. The impact of ethnicity and nationalism on politics is less commonly treated, because most analysts adhere to an instrumentalist and modernist view of ethnicity and nationalism We need rather to explore the relationship between culture and politics, and between premodern ethnic ties and modern nations, through an examination of three major trends, the purification of culture through authentication, which can lead to cultural and social exclusion; the universalization of ethnic chosenness through nationalist ideology, which engenders national solidarity and self-assertion; and the territorialization of shared memory, which inspires historical claims to historic homelands and sacred sites. These processes can be found throughout history, but they are particularly marked and widespread in the modern epoch; and they underlic many current political conflicts.