Book•
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
01 Jan 1983-
TL;DR: In this paper, Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality and explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialisation of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time.
Abstract: What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality - the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to the nation - has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality. Anderson explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialisation of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time. He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was modularly adopted by popular movements in Europe, by the imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa. This revised edition includes two new chapters, one of which discusses the complex role of the colonialist state's mindset in the development of Third World nationalism, while the other analyses the processes by which all over the world, nations came to imagine themselves as old.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce a theory of "religious outbidding" that embattled political elites will tender religious bids when they calculate that increasing their religious legitimacy will strengthen their chances of survival.
Abstract: From 1940 to 2000, Islam was involved in a disproportionately high number of civil wars compared with other religions, such as Christianity or Hinduism. To help explain the overrepresentation of Islam in these wars, this article introduces a theory of “religious outbidding.” The theory holds that embattled political elites will tender religious bids when they calculate that increasing their religious legitimacy will strengthen their chances of survival. In combination with three overlapping factors—the historical absence of an internecine religious civil war similar to the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, proximity of Islam's holiest sites to Israel and large petroleum reserves, and jihad (i.e., defense of Islam as a religious obligation), religious outbidding accounts for Islam's higher representation in religious civil wars. The article includes a statistical analysis of the role of religion in civil wars and tests the logic of the argument of religious outbidding in the case of Sudan's two civil wars.
302 citations
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03 Dec 2001TL;DR: In this article, a place for the state: legal pluralism as a colonial project in Bengal and West Africa, and a constructing sovereignty: extra-territoriality in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
Abstract: Acknowledgements 1. Legal regimes and colonial cultures 2. Law in diaspora: the legal regime of the Atlantic world 3. Order out of trouble: jurisdictional tensions in Catholic and Islamic empires 4. A place for the state: legal pluralism as a colonial project in Bengal and West Africa 5. Subjects and witnesses: cultural and legal hierarchies in the Cape Colony and New South Wales 6. Constructing sovereignty: extra-territoriality in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay 7. Culture and the rule(s) of law Bibliography Index.
302 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Crosscurrents, crosstalk, race, postcoloniality, and the politics of location are discussed in the context of crosscurrents in cultural studies.
Abstract: (1993). Crosscurrents, crosstalk: Race, ‘Postcoloniality’ and the politics of location. Cultural Studies: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 292-310.
301 citations
TL;DR: Competition among societies and organizations with different faith-based beliefs and practices has increasingly connected religion with both within-group prosociality and between-group enmity, and this connection has strengthened dramatically in recent millennia.
Abstract: Understanding religion requires explaining why supernatu- ral beliefs, devotions, and rituals are both universal and vari- 20 able across cultures, and why religion is so often associated with both large-scale cooperation and enduring group conflict. Emerging lines of research suggest that these oppositions result from the convergence of three processes. First, the interaction of certain reliably developing cognitive processes, such as our 25 ability to infer the presence of intentional agents, favors—as an evolutionary by-product—the spread of certain kinds of counterintuitive concepts. Second, participation in rituals and devotions involving costly displays exploits various aspects of our evolved psychology to deepen people's commitment 30 to both supernatural agents and religious communities. Third, competition among societies and organizations with different faith-based beliefs and practices has increasingly connected re- ligion with both within-group prosociality and between-group enmity. This connection has strengthened dramatically in re- 35 cent millennia, as part of the evolution of complex societies, and is important to understanding cooperation and conflict in today's world.
300 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze how local guides handle their role as ambassadors of communal cultural heritage and how community members react to their narratives and practices in Tanzania, and reveal multiple complex issues of power and resistance that illustrate many community-based tourism conflicts.
Abstract: Using examples from long-term anthropological fieldwork in Tanzania, this paper critically analyzes how well generally accepted community-based tourism discourses resonate with the reality on the ground. It focuses on how local guides handle their role as ambassadors of communal cultural heritage and how community members react to their narratives and practices. It pays special attention to the time-limited, project-based development method, the need for an effective exit strategy, for quality control, tour guide training and long-term tour guide retention. The study is based on a program funded by the Netherlands-based development agency, Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers (SNV), from 1995 to 2001, and on post-program experiences. Findings reveal multiple complex issues of power and resistance that illustrate many community-based tourism conflicts. The encounter with the “Other” is shown to be central and that the role of professional intermediaries in facilitating this experience of cultural contact is...
300 citations