Author : Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)
Book Synopsis Us and Them in Modern Societies by : Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Download or read book Us and Them in Modern Societies written by Thomas Hylland Eriksen and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is nationalism an official ideology, or a personal sentiment, or both? How can ethnic and nationalist ideologies be reconciled? Is ethnicity a modern phenomenon? Do plural societies exist? This book addresses these and other issues concerning ethnicity and nationalism. Drawing on a wide range of examples from Mauritius and Trinidad, Hylland shows the complexity and the ambiguities of ethnic classification in multiethnic societies, the variable social importance of ethnicity, and the tension between ethnicity and nationalism. Refining the conceptual tools available for the study of these phenomena, the author points out ambiguities in conceptualizations of nationalism. He argues the utility of a formal comparative concept of ethnicity, but against over-emphasizing ethnic relations as is implied in the theory of "plural" societies.