First of all I expect everyone to have read and be prepared to discuss tomorrow's readings on Kente cloth and the Ernest Gellner piece on nations and nationalism. Even though the Gellner is difficult [I seriously don't know why he chose to write that allegory instead of actually going through a real historical example of a nation in formation] please use Professor Biernacki's guideline as that's a great resource. These pieces are short and there is no excuse for not being prepared. Remember, there is more readings in the upcoming weeks so do your best to stay up even though I know it's tough with midterms [and SunGod coming up].
In short, Gellner is telling us that nations are not inevitable, they are not natural in any way. Instead, they are the recent [only about 250 years] product of the bourgeois class' efforts. And there is a particular historical pattern to the invention of nations: industrialization [or the rise of machinery/factories in the capitalist mode of production] drew the peasantry from the countryside into cities, required skilled labor and thus mass education was enacted, and this education produced "high culture". I feel he could have laid out that process more, but pay attention to how he argues low and high culture are related to the formation of nationalism, and finally the nation.
Also, we will be discussing the ideas of invented traditions more generally tomorrow. Please think of any invented traditions in your families or your lives at UCSD. As a person of Scottish ancestry, I know that my family has a 'traditional' crest and kilt pattern [tartan] for our clan. Here's the image of the crest for the Sutherland clan, of which Cheyne is a part-
http://www.scotclans.com/scottish_clans/clan_sutherland/crest.htmlAnd here's a link to the tartan patterns if anyone's interested:
http://www.scotchcorner.com/mill/tartans-s/sutherland.html
Anyway, I know we have a lot of ethnicities represented in our class so I'm interested to hear your experiences with traditions real and invented.
I'd also like you to think about the appropriation of traditions by the market or the state. Have you experienced any of you traditions being used to advertise or market a product, or justify a government? And how do you feel about the traditions you create with your family or friends--don't they feel real and important? I know I go to Chicago every spring to visit friends and I'm not sure how that resonates with the capitalist system [I guess I buy a plane ticket and we have an expensive meal together, but still].
Finally, think about the process of state formation and how that very much involves the extinguishing of local or regional cultures. I think there are some clear and extremely worrisome examples of how this is happening right now--think about the world right now and come to class with some ideas on this topic.
See you tomorrow,
AC
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