{"id":10913,"date":"2017-01-11T14:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T22:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=10913"},"modified":"2017-01-11T14:00:05","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T22:00:05","slug":"imagined-communities-benedict-andersons-exploration-into-nationalisms-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/imagined-communities-benedict-andersons-exploration-into-nationalisms-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagined Communities: Benedict Anderson’s Exploration into Nationalism’s Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is it helpful for us to understand the origin and spread of nationalism, I wondered. In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism<\/em>, Benedict Anderson does an excellent job of presenting his theory on the rise of nationalism, and his pivotal work is essential for any discussion of nationalism. While we might think of a \u2018nation\u2019 as ancient (think \u201cHellenistic Greece\u201d), \u2018nations\u2019 as we know them have only been around for a few centuries. Identity<\/em> and belonging<\/em> shifted as the world moved into the modern age. \"\"<\/a>Printing presses and rapid mass communication homogenized fluid languages; printed languages transitioned from the sacred to the vernacular; the emergence of the novel offered an external view of time. Exploration, colonialism, and resettlement (sometimes forced) led to foreign born Europeans (creoles) creating their own identities apart from their European \u201chomelands.\u201d The functionary roles of bourgeoisie leaders challenged both the hereditary leadership and divine blessing of feudalism. Maps became popular and cemented formerly porous boundaries (sometime arbitrarily). Industrialization created \u201chuman interchangeability.\u201d[1]<\/a> All of these factors converged to form what Anderson describes as an imagined political community\u2026 both inherently limited and sovereign.[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To ask again, why is it helpful for us today (as doctor of ministry students, people of faith seeking to enhance our leadership skills) to understand the origin and spread of nationalism? According to anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen, one reason is that nationalism inherently must draw boundaries between insiders and outsiders, Us and Them. That is, group identities must always be defined in relation to what they are not<\/em>.[3]<\/a> Eriksen suggests that the drive to homogenization creates stigmatized others<\/em>; there is no inclusion without exclusion.[4]<\/a> When I am identified as an American (a term co-opted early on by the United States rather than the rest of the American nation-states), I am just as much suggesting I am not British, Swedish, or Kenyan (although my ancestors were both British and Swedish, and I was for a time a Kenyan resident). One challenge we see today with national identities is their fluidity<\/em><\/strong>. While migration has been around as long as humans have (and even before), immigration has exploded as the world population has. With solid boundaries, nation-states seek to create bounded national identities (\u201cI am an American\u201d). What happens, though, is that people\u2014through cultural practices, language, skin color, religion, etc.\u2014continue to identify themselves (and be identified by the state) as Other or Both\/And (\u201chypens\u201d). So in the United States, we see people being identified as Mexican-American, Korean-American, Muslim American, etc. For one reason or another (sometimes their own choosing, sometimes external factors), they have not assimilated, and their relationship to the state might be in flux (\u201cbuild that wall!\u201d, internment camps, Jim Crow laws, etc.). We see similar challenges to nationalistic identity throughout the world. For instance, Germany and much of Europe struggle with the immigration of Syrians out of Syria. Much of Europe grapples with the assimilation of Muslim Europeans. Kenyans wrestle with the Somalian immigrant population in their borders. What does<\/em> it mean to be American? To be German? To be Kenyan? Obviously, this is not a new question. The state of Germany sought on a massive level to answer that question\u2014what does it mean to be German?\u2014 leading to the Holocaust. Cambodia\u2019s genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime of ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, and other minorities (including religious minorities) is another example.<\/p>\n

Questions to ponder:<\/p>\n