ABSTRACT
This chapter presents four inferences from the story about Arnold J. Toynbee. First, those living in diasporas do not necessarily agree with the characterizations of them drawn by external observers, however learned or scholarly. There may be a significant difference between diaspora as a category of self-identification as opposed to diaspora as a category of external classification. Second, there is often a tension between nationalism and diasporas. For Toynbee, nationalism was an anathema, a view he derived partly from collecting witness statements of the murderous attacks by Ottoman forces on Armenians during the period 1915–17. Third, the assumed relationship between nation-state and diaspora misconceives the ways in which identities are forged. A fourth inference focuses on the potency and future of diasporas. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
