Lecture 5: Identity, Imagined Community, the Nation, and Transnational Influences Flashcards

1
Q

Historic Canadian Identity

A
  • have a lot of ties to the British
  • when we were considering the national anthem, “Maple Leaf Forever” was an option that were more politically correct (included Britain, Scotland, and Ireland)
  • we don’t consider most of these things to be part of our identity anymore; it’s not all about God and King (like in WWII)
  • there’s also the French/Quebec section
  • there are also regional versions, i.e. someone from BC or Alberta doesn’t have the same outlook as someone from Ontario
  • all of the above are slightly obsolete and old-fashioned
  • now, we’re multicultural
  • something subtler is that we’re not American
    • e.g. we say that we’re politer than the US, but not the Japanese or anyone else
    • there’s more contest to multiculturalism in the US, but they’re not a melting pot anymore
  • we also have a North American identity
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2
Q

Who is “Canadian”?

A
  • there are degrees to being “Canadian”
  • if you ask someone, “what’s your nationality” you’re asking what passport they have or their citizenship
  • but when the answer, they usually answer with ethnicity
    • some people will just say “Canadian” and some won’t if they’re mixed
  • legal citizenship and practical citizenship are not the same thing; practical citizenship means having their voice heard, making a difference in their community, being recognized and cared for by the state, and being recognized by others in the community
  • remember that anthropologists aren’t trying to say what’s “correct” or how things should be; they’re just describing how things are
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3
Q

Imagined Community

A
  • the idea comes from Benedict Anderson, Cornell University
  • imagined community: a group who doesn’t know each other face-to-face but feel and act like a community
    • somehow we’re close to each other, as Canadians, but there’s no way for all of us to know each other
  • the way we use “community” is almost like a plural; e.g. gay community means “gay people” and Jewish community means “Jewish people”
  • in anthropology, we use community to mean groups of people together
  • Kalmar: but a group of people doesn’t automatically make a community, e.g. Ontario isn’t a community but BC and Quebec are
  • religious communities are also imagined; this is sanctified by the religion; they’re supposed to feel a connection with each other
    • religious communities are an older idea than nations
    • religious identities have often been (most of the time unsuccessfully) turned into national identities; e.g. Islam
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4
Q

Hockey

A
  • hockey is Canada’s national winter sport, and lacrosse is the national summer sport
  • in order for a community to be practiced, we must:
    • play hockey
    • watch hockey
    • talk about hockey
  • it’s a spectacle of imagined community; even though Russians probably play and enjoy hockey just as much, it’s not as much a part of their identity; it’s a means for us to imagine the nation of Canada
  • consider: Canada vs. Russia or Canada vs. the USA in a hockey game
    • it’s more intense when we play against the Russians; the USA are like our rival friends, but the Russians are like our “enemies”
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5
Q

What is a “Nation”?

A
  • it can mean a “state”, a political unit
  • can also be an imagined community; some states don’t have an imagined community (although most modern ones do, it’s more successful this way)
  • again, nations as an imagined community is a relatively new concept (although nations as a state has been around for a while, which will be discussed in another lecture)
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6
Q

What Comes First? State or National Community?

A
  • e.g. the “German nation” was talked about before Germany was founded as a country 1871; but we tend to think about Germany as being older than Canada
  • e.g. Italy was founded in 1861, but even before it was founded, they felt like they were a nation state
  • in these cases, the imagined community (“the people”) is the justification for the political nation (“the state”)
    • it’s hard for people to reconcile accepting new people into their state while maintaining they’re national identity, since their reason for existence is this imagined community
    • this is why it’s easier for us to be multicultural, compared to Germany
  • in Canada, the imagined nation is the result of, and supports, a pre-existing political nation (state)
  • it’s not like people just started feeling Canadian the day the nation was established
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7
Q

Nations Are Always Constructed

A
  • even if you identify strongly as a Hungarian (or whatever else), it’s still constructed
    • this feeling is only a few generations old
    • even if you feel that it’s so ingrained in you, so naturally given, that you’d be willing to die for your nation, there’s nothing intrinsic about this feeling
    • we’re not saying it’s not real, it is, but it’s still constructed
  • but remember that an imagined community is not imaginary
  • a national “identity” is important for a nation’s existence
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8
Q

Language and National Identity

A
  • languages (not the ability to have language itself) are constructed
  • the 19th century in Europe is when this linguistic nationalism started to rise
    • e.g. German because they spoke German; but in reality, German dialects were very different from each other
    • in the villages the border between Germany and Holland, their language is much closer than what’s spoken between Berlin and Amsterdam
  • nations defined themselves by a common language; they decided the borders based on language
  • language and dialect are a political difference that has to do with the construction of a nation; they are not a linguistic labels, but political labels
  • examples of languages that are very similar and the speakers can understand each other:
    • Russian and Ukrainian
    • Czech and Slovak
    • Danish and Norwegian
    • Serbian and Croatian
    • Hindi and Urdu
  • but there are many Chinese dialects that other Chinese people don’t understand; these dialects are further apart from each other than Russian and Ukrainian or Hindi and Urdu, but are not different languages
    • this is because politically, China is one nation, and historically always has been
    • there’s no other real good explanation for why else this would happen
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9
Q

African National Identities

A
  • these countries typically lack a common, distinctive, local language
  • they were derived from colonial state formations rather than their own imagined communities
    • this is one explanation for why African nations are so prone to separatist movements; they don’t really consider themselves a community
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10
Q

National Identity, Minorities, and Immigration

A
  • in Europe, minorities were “trapped” in new states when national borders were drawn based on linguistic-national identities
  • in Canada, the French minority was the result of British military victory over the French
  • there are immigrants who bring into Canada identities that weren’t there before
  • multiculturalism is a solution to all of the different cultures being brought in
  • in Quebec, the French people do have the feeling of primordial kinship, which is reflected in the debate of, “how many nations is Canada?”
    • people outside Quebec generally answer there’s one, but surveys from within Quebec would say that there’s two
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11
Q

Case Study: Afro-Antillianness in Panama and Transnational Tourism and Local Identity

A
  • they (generally) live along the coast of Panama
  • history of the title of the article; it was once forbidden to use African drums when the Spanish ruled these areas, and afterwards, since African culture was considered inferior
  • the Afro-Antillians are black people who speak versions of English, which we call creole
  • the tourists come to these places to have a good time and to encounter “native culture”
  • tourists generally have knowledge of calypso or reggae, which is not really Panamanian form, but they play it for tourists to be good sports
  • there’s a group called Samy y Sandra, who play tipico music, but blended with reggae so it’ll be more attractive to the tourists
  • the tourists are happy with this, but the locals are actually happy as well because it sells
  • instead of making the place more American by introducing tourists, the music as actually become more Antillian
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