HIEA 115 Week 1 Discussion Post

Benedict Anderson in “Imagined Communities” argues that exclusion is not necessary for nationalism, whereas Anne McClintock in “Family Feuds” argues that it is necessary for nationalism. Anderson defines nationalism as “an imagined political community — and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” “(49). He adds the three characteristics of nations as being limited, sovereign, and having community. They are limited because one nation’s geographical boundaries must end for another nation’s to begin; sovereign because they are founded on religious beliefs, which give them the divine right to rule; and have community because of the comradery established between its people.

On the other hand, McClintock defines nationalism as “historical and institutional practices through which social difference is invented and performed” (61). She argues that all nationalisms are gendered, invented, and dangerous and unfortunately indigenous communities (through settler colonialism) and women were implicated in the building of the modern nation.

Both Anderson and McClintock help me understand, but also further complicate my own definition of a nation. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of a nation is a group of people who speak the same language. But after reading “Imagined Communities”, I realize that is not necessarily true and that although nations often have “national print languages”(58), that language is often only spoken by a fraction of the population.

So what is a nation? A nation is a group of people who live within the same territorial boundaries. Nations often have a national language that is spoken by most but not all of the population and citizens have a basic understanding of the nation’s history. However, people have their own definition of what the word “nation” means to them and can identify with it in different ways.