ABSTRACT
In the early post-colonial period, modernization theorists, influenced by functionalism, considered tribalism to be particularistic and ascriptive rather than universalistic and achievement-oriented, and therefore dysfunctional for the development of a modern society. Distinctions between tribes, ethnic groups and nations have rarely been made systematically or precisely in social science. In contrast to the primordialists, A. Smith emphasises the contingency of modern nationalism, while insisting also on crucial elements of ethnic continuity in its formation. Primordialist theories of ethnicity and nationalism have been attractive because they appear to explain the strength and persistence of sentiments, which some influential sociological and political theories assumed would be eliminated by the forces of modernization. In a world of nations, of nation-states, of ethnonationalist challengers, of many and diverse non-ethnic solidarities, there is an urgent need to rethink Enlightenment cosmopolitanism in order to change the world, to the understanding of which theories of ethnonationalism have contributed so much.
