ANTH 23 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Will Kymlicka, Polyethnicity, Nationstates
12th January Friday
ANTH 23
Group Rights: !
Alternative to Eurocentrism or!
Recipe for Balkanization?
Will Kymlicka:
Canadian political philosopher who argues that sole focus on individual rights undermines the
culture and self-governance of minority communities. Thus, ethnic groups should have varying
degrees of group rights. His work attempts to reconcile this with liberal political theory that tends
to focus exclusively on individuals
Origins of the modern nation-state:
Gellner argues that it was developed in industrial societies when urbanizing populations
became distanced from traditional ties of family, clan, hometown and religion. He argues it
comes about as a process of urbanization. In the past most of identities were tied to family and
then with advancement and urbanization we were tied to their city states and and then when
people started migrating, nation identities developed. !
Benedict Anderson calls the nation an “imagined community” that arose when mass media and
markets standardized language and world-views to tie people together !
Kymlicka argues that it originated in imitation of homogenous ancient Greek city-states !
However, no nation is really as homogenous as these theories suggest, so diversity often
appears to be a problem. He believed these modern nations resurrected these greek city
states. Athens as a beacon of democracy, but it wasn’t all inclusive, foreigners could not vote,
women, slaves, so everyone who has money to invest and can read can participate but this is
not a majority. Not all participates in politics of nation states. A lot of people are excluded from
these nation states. So diversity often appears as a problem.!
19th century Europe:
From polyethnic (diversity arose from immigration) empires to “homogenous” nations. Unified
nation-states were uncommon and mostly it was composed of polyethnic empires and these
were other places like German,Italian states that had common languages and ancestry but were
not unified. Nationalism was a primary factor of both world wars and it was a common idea that
every nation should have a state.
Nationalism:
The belief that every nation should have a state and that the nation has largely replaced clan
and family in providing socialization, group identity, and standards of behavior and the belief that
cultural/ethnic boundaries should correspond to political boundaries (each nation should have a
state). We tend to impose nations on pasts that are more complicated on
Modern differences are naturalized by imposing them onto a diverse and complicated past.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Canadian political philosopher who argues that sole focus on individual rights undermines the culture and self-governance of minority communities. Thus, ethnic groups should have varying degrees of group rights. His work attempts to reconcile this with liberal political theory that tends to focus exclusively on individuals. Gellner argues that it was developed in industrial societies when urbanizing populations became distanced from traditional ties of family, clan, hometown and religion. He argues it comes about as a process of urbanization. In the past most of identities were tied to family and then with advancement and urbanization we were tied to their city states and and then when people started migrating, nation identities developed. Benedict anderson calls the nation an imagined community that arose when mass media and markets standardized language and world-views to tie people together. Kymlicka argues that it originated in imitation of homogenous ancient greek city-states.
