The primordialist–constructivist debate today 1

A real primordialist–constructivist debate has not yet emerged in Western social science. At least it has not materialized in most places during most of the twentieth century. ² Indeed, even in the nineteenth century, only relatively minor or second-level theorists with a primarily ethnically restricted appeal were avowed primordialists: the Comte Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1843–1859) in France, Ludwig Gumplowitz (1838–1909) in Germany, Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927) in Great Britain. ³ Their usually accompanying racism left them increasingly isolated intellectually even then, although the term ‘race’ certainly did not mean the same for all of them.