National Identity: Between Continuity and Variability Cover Image

Национални идентитет: између континуитета и променљивости
National Identity: Between Continuity and Variability

Author(s): Milena M. Pešić
Subject(s): Anthropology, Political Philosophy, Politics and Identity
Published by: Институт за политичке студије
Keywords: national identity; ethnicity; social construct; culture; politics; cultural identity; continuity and change; the boundaries;

Summary/Abstract: The starting point of this paper - that the social phenomena of nations and national identity can not be reduced without unacceptable reduction in the form of ideology or policy, but that they should be viewed broadly, in the anthropological and cultural lines and always in socio-cultural context, so they fully understand, was developed through consideration of cultural level of national identity, understood as a social construct, connecting ideas of Benedict Anderson, Anthony Smith and Jean-Francois Bajar. Central line problematization in this paper was given, the route / duration / distinctness: konstruisanost / volatility / fluidity, has been developed through two conceptual connections: the establishment of links between ethnic and national identity considerations from the perspective of their common “cultural configuration” which is the basis offered Smith, along with that, as opposed to form his views, taken, and observations of the interactive dynamics of establishing and changing ethnic boundaries, with a focus on ideas of Frederich Barth. Another direction thematization of durability and volatility led through rethinking the concept of cultural identity through the presentation of the basic controversy in the interpretation of its relationship with national identity on the line essentialisation - relativism. Concluding remarks led to a partial acceptance of the thesis that the construction of difference, as the basis for collective self-identification, subject to changing product design, but only to the extent that it respects the cultural mechanisms and processes of signification that give character to a specific continuity of national identifications, through the establishment of a symbolic-axiological structure as a form of life within the dynamics of change immanent to society and culture in general.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 103-132
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: Serbian