Monday, September 1, 2008

Paul Brass - Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison.

Paul Brass points to the role and aims of elites, “who draw upon, distort, and sometimes fabricate materials from the cultures of the groups, be it a language of an ethnic group, the already existing status, the political-administrative devolution or decentralization of the political power, in order to protect their well-being and existence, or to gain political and economic advantage, not for their groups, but for themselves first and foremost”,[1] hence “transforming the nationalist sentiment militant.” [2] Thus, nationalism and ethnic conflicts could be referred as the complex and specific types of interaction between the leaderships of centralizing states and elites, from non-dominant, mostly peripheral, ethnic groups, being formed and determined by multiple internal and external loyalties and allegiances.[3]
[1]Paul Brass. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison. (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1991), 8
[2]Russell Hardin. One for All – The Logic of Group Conflict. (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1995), 152
[3]Paul Brass. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison. (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1991), 9.

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