Ethnic Nationalism: Human Identities - Assignment Example

This assignment "Theories of nationalism" concerns the history of nationalism origin.... As the author puts it, one of the major factors that chart the kind of government a nation can have is nationalism.... hellip; It is also envisaged that its presentation would include elements, factors, issues, and theories influencing the development of nationalism of a nation....  This paper seeks to present theories that may have unresolved arguments among theorists and historians which may give enlightenment to other issues on nationalism....

The first studies relating to nationalism were mostly historically accounted for by the nationalist movements.... This gives rise to the sociological theories of nationalism which date back to the period after the second world war.... hellip;  nationalism refers to an aspect of universalism where the people of a particular state are held together and share the same culture.... The point of the existence of nationalism is a nation characterized by shared language, culture, and values....

Today, most countries, especially those in the third world, have embraced their group identities, which are evident in their communities and ethnic groups.... These identities are coercive, therefore, cannot be understood basing on people's social interactions.... Finally, he asserted that these identities base on affection and might make the involved people sentimental (Conversi 1995).... On the other hand, the sociobiological approach bases on human behavior, in its explanation of nationalism....

The position of perennialists is that nationalism can be traced to cultural characteristics and the nature of the human landscape with throughout their particular histories; this takes to consideration every factor including those that are purely symbolic or even mythical.... The concept of nationalism was one of the most important political concepts of the 19th and 20th century (Mosse 2004); during this period, it was a crucial consideration in many of the global and regional conflicts especially with the emergence of globalization....

Ernest Gellner was able to convincingly demonstrate that nationalism marked a profound break in human history instead of corresponding to a universal and ancient human need.... Nationalism can be characterized as 'the organization of human groups into large, centrally educated, culturally homogenous units'.... This essay "nationalism" answers the question of how meaningful is it to distinguish between different kinds of nationalism....

This paper "Nations and nationalism" discusses nationalism.... At the same time, nationalism refers to the actions that are taken by the citizens of a particular country.... The specificity of nationalism, that which distinguishes nationality from other types of identity, derives from the fact that nationalism locates the source of individual identity within a “people”, which for its part has been acknowledged as the bearer of sovereignty, the central object of loyalty, and the basis of collective solidarity....

hereupon, we come into the two theories of nationalism: the civic nationalism and the ethnic nationalism.... I believe that although the two kinds of nationalism are different from each other; civic nationalism emanates from ethnic nationalism because the former is a heritage that existed during the times of our forefathers; and that civic nationalism has gathered its principles from the experience of ethnic nationalism.... 20-39) supports my assertion that civic nationalism could not exist without ethnic nationalism....

Ronen's scholarly work The Quest for Self-Determination further explicates the nature of ethnic and national identities.... In order to illustrate the complexities involved in ethnic and national identities, Ronen constructs a new conceptual framework which he calls “aggregations”.... The notion of common ethnicity has played a significant role throughout the history of human civilization, whereas patriotism, as is presently understood, is a relatively new phenomenon – only with the emergence of modern democratic institutions and the establishment of nation-states did patriotism gain currency in political discourse....