ABSTRACT
This chapter first examines the assumptions behind some recent work in the field of nationalism and national identity. In doing so, it starts with the so-called 'post-modernist' approaches of Homi Bhabha and Benedict Anderson, followed by the recent works of Eric Hobsbawm in the Marxist tradition, and finally the revised version of Ernest Gellner's modernist theory. Ethno-symbolic reconstruction is the basic process through which national identities are reconstituted out of ethnic ties and characteristics, and then reproduced or modified. It occurs in every generation, more or less thoroughly, altering but never destroying the basic patterning of the dominant ethno-heritage which underpins any popular and recognized national identity. The chapter then advances an alternative approach based on the idea of reconstruction of a distinctive ethno-heritage, and further applies this to ethnic, civic and especially plural nations.
