Primordialism

Primordialism or perennialism is the argument which contends that nations are ancient, natural phenomena; i.e. that an idea of a nation will ultimately develop within any group with shared cultural characteristics.

Primordialism can be traced philosophically to the ideas of German Romanticism, particularly in the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Johann Gottfried Herder. For Herder, the nation was synonymous with language group. In Herder's thinking, language was synonymous with thought, and as each language was learnt in community, then each community must think differently. This also suggests that the community would hold a fixed nature over time.

Primordialism encountered enormous criticism after the Second World War, with many scholars of nationalism coming to treat the nation as a community constructed by the technologies and politics of modernity (see Modernism).

Primordialism, in relation to ethnicity, argues that "ethnic groups and nationalities exist because there are traditions of belief and action towards primordial objects such as biological factors and especially territorial location".

This argument relies on a concept of kinship, where members of an ethnic group feel they share characteristics, origins or sometimes even a blood relationship. Seen through the Igbos of Nigeria, following what they felt was their origin as descendants of the Jews. "Primordialism assumes ethnic identity as fixed, once it is constructed".

While acknowledging that "primordialism is admittedly not without its own flaws and problems," much like all conceptual and theoretical traditions in the social sciences, political scientist Khalil F. Osman argues that "Primordialism, as an approach that stresses the workings of sub-national loyalties and solidarities operative in the collective consciousness of communities, is still capable of furnishing an epistemological and conceptual tool informing and opening up a unique space for inquiry and into social and political action."

See also

• Ethnic conflict
• Nationalism
• Jus sanguinis
• Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
• Social constructionism
• The Primordial Tradition

Sources

• Jack Hayward, Brian Barry, Archie Brown (2003) The British Study of Politics in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-726294-5
• Yehouda A. Shenhav (2006) The Arab Jews: a postcolonial reading of nationalism, religion, and ethnicity, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-5296-6
• Dominique Jacquin-Berdal (2002) Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Horn of Africa: A Critique of the Ethnic Interpretation Edwin Mellen Press, ISBN 0-7734-6954-0
• Bayar, Murat, ‘Reconsidering Primordialism: an alternative approach to the study of ethnicity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32.9, (2009), pp. 1–20
• Gryosby, Steven, (1994) ‘The verdict of history: The inexpungeable tie of primordialityhuth – A response to Eller and Coughlan’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 17(1), pp. 164–171
• Harnischfeger, Johannes, "Secessionism in Nigeria", ECAS 4 conference, Uppsala, (2011)
• Joireman, Sandra Fullerton, ‘Primordialism’, in Nationalism and Political Identity, (Cornwall: MPG Books Ltd, 2003), pp. 19–35 (p. 19).
• Sambanis, Nicholas, ‘Do ethnic and nonethnic Civil Wars have the same causes? A theoretical and Empirical Inquiry (Part 1)’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45 (2001), 259-282
• Spencer, Steve, Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006)
• Uvin, Peter, ‘Ethnicity and Power in Burundi and Rwanda: Different Paths to Mass Violence’, Comparative Politics, 31 (1999), 253-271
• Jefremovas, Villia, ‘Acts of Human Kindness: Tutsi, Hutu and the Genocide’, A Journal of Opinion, 23 (1995), 28-31

Further reading

• Barth, Fredrik 1969: Ethnic Groups and Boundaries
• Smith, Anthony D. 1998. Nationalism and modernism: a critical survey of recent theories of nations and nationalism, London; New York: Routledge.
• Özkırımlı, Umut 2000. Theories of Nationalism, London: Macmillan Press.
• Espiritu, Yen Le: Asian-American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities.
• Appadurai, Arjun 1996: Modernity at Large