ABSTRACT
Modernists and non-modernists The roots of nationalism run millennia deep; still, nationalism – the creation, consolidation, and diffusion of nation-states – is only centuries old. To appreciate this apparent paradox we must explore the intertwining of the material and the ideological aspects of nationalism and its historical antecedents. The most archaic, distant, wellsprings of the ideologies informing nation-states – myths, historical events, the veneration of remarkable heroes, symbols, sacred sites – lie in prehistory, in tribalism. When we think of tribalism we think of the “Dark Gods”: hatred of peoples speaking different languages, worshipping other deities, venerating heroes who may have led military campaigns against one’s own community. We associate contempt for and fear of others outside one’s own tribe as a sine qua non of tribalism. We believe vengeful feelings, extreme chauvinism, deeply rooted irrational unwillingness to extend trust outside of one’s group to the extent of not carrying on welfare enhancing trade and commercial interaction to so-called national enemies is integral to tribalism. We imagine tribes celebrating brutal victories over other tribes, awash in the blood of enemy males, unleashing rape on the conquered women, taking prisoners who are turned into slaves and concubines. In short, the commonly held view is that tribalism is rooted in irrationality, superstition, unfounded fears, and vengeful feelings, the unbridled animal passions. In contrast the standard model of a modern society revolves around a list of characteristics that are assumed to be the hallmarks of commercially oriented rational behavior. We think of the spread of literacy and education, the penetration of skeptical rational thought integral to science and engineering into every aspect of existence, the breaking down of social barriers denying the masses the opportunity to develop their talents, the specialization and division of labor, as hallmarks of modernization. Reason, science, complex social organization, people falling into niches – students, janitors, construction workers, dentists, mechanics, accountants – pursuing their self-interest in a calculating future oriented manner are presumed to anchor modern populations. How can we possibly entertain the possibility that the passions characterizing the Dark Gods of tribalism co-exist with the so-called rationality of modern era?
