Does Primordialism Best Explain the Formation of Identity Groups?

In fact, while the distinctive ideologies and religious groups still exist, the clear boundaries of different civilizations characterized by Huntington have blurred. When this dichotomy to recognize the world as direct confrontations between ideology and culture groups becomes no longer valid, the theory of the inevitability of the clash of civilization, thus, are now flawed, because it is realistically unreasonable, ethically wrong, conceptually biased and historically inaccurate. These problems regarding the clash of civilizations embody a misleading western supremacy shown in Bush’s speech as well as the war on terror on a larger

Development in any society is meant to positively impact the lives of the people through advancing in terms of social and economic status. Ideally development brings about opportunities for the people but when these opportunities are hindered due to the fact that one belongs to a certain ethnic group, then development is blocked. Existence of various ethnic groups in a country does not necessarily mean conflicts, but when competition among these groups arises, then conflict is inevitable (Alemayehu, 2009). In

Huntington also does not see westernization as a desirable surge that engulfs world politics. Conflict is very natural and history proves that argument. The author takes away focus from states as a foundation of war in the future and more on conflict between major culture regions. He states that peoples cultural and religious identities will be the primary bases of conflict post cold war. The world is becoming a smaller place with modernization and technology; thus, relations between people of different civilizations deepen consciousness and awareness. Post cold war, the role of the Western society enhances the growth of civilization. Unlike Fukuyamas argument, Huntington states that cultural characteristics and differences are more complex to solve than political and economical

Liberals have endorsed nationalism for a long time, making liberal nationalism indeed a particularly liberal approach towards social unity .The scholars supporting the demands for national sovereignty insinuate as a fundamental argument for liberal nationalism the point that if liberals look out for individual autonomy and prosperity, they must be aware about a beneficial cultural environment necessary for meaningful choices and consequently about the health of the national cultures that deliver this environment of choice. (Kymlicka, 267). Indeed, in the nineteenth-century Europe in particular, to be a liberal meant to be a nationalist. Liberal nationalism is a principled form of nationalism, founded above all on the concept of national self-determination,

Primordialist approach believes that ethnicity groups are collective identities that are deeply rooted in historical experience or biological traits. Primordialists believes that number of people are born in a certain group, then form different clans and ethnics later on. Basically, primordialism approach to ethnicity assumes that once its constructed it is fixed. For example, the identity of someone will be defined by identifying their establishment through fraternity and ancestry. If an individual’s ancestors are Chinese, therefore, he/she will be ac Chinese for the rest of his life. He then will keep his identity and pass it to his generations. .Clifford Greertz is influenced by primordialism views and one of his writing states the ideas

Since the conception of Identity politics; it has caused great distortion within the political realm. The use of identity within politics imposes segregation

Identities are created to protect boarders, as discussed in class the notion that “in creating a nation state now lets make an identity.” One problem with this notion is that some nations do not have recognized borderers. Another problem is that it is not reasonable to create an identity that will encompass everyone. To give an illustration, take Nazi Germany and the myth of Aryan race. Anything that was not ‘Aryan’ was considered a second-class citizen where one was either expelled or eliminated in their attempts to achieve self-determination (Rachel Guglielmo, 197). The effort in the end was an expensive and ineffective process. On Monday, we discussed the notion that nationhood could be at a national level and also a subnational level. Consequently,

While reading this article I was able to iidentify ways Huntington talks about and uses religion in his assessment of world affairs, the composition of civilizations, and how civilizations interact with each other. Democracy is like religion it can be seen as a imperialistic venture if it is not grown at home. trying to convert a person is always a act of bigotry. Without the ideology of collectivism, the new enemy would then be based on culture or maybe even religion. I believe that Huntington identifies the civilization in the religious divisions because " civilization is a cultural entity."(2) All groups for example: ethnic groups, religious groups, regions, nationatilies, and villiages has distinct cultures at all different levels. However,

John Downing and Charles Husband (2005) discuss the nature of ethnicity to state that it has a personal and collective aspect, and that is influenced by the social interaction and the political mobilization.

Huntington thesis stated in his opinion that the great differences among people and the dominating source of conflicts would be due to differences in culture. He also stated that key conflicts in global politics will take place due to different civilizations among nations.

As people of different cultural backgrounds move into the same area, they bring with them their views on the ways that people to act towards each other, towards the community, and towards god. These new views challenge the existing order and give rise to movements focused on preserving the integrity of the host culture. In France, the Front National has risen to prominence on a platform of nationalism, which hopes to prevent the ‘islamization’ of French culture. At a nationalism conference, attended by the Front National, and held in Japan, a spokesman said that the conference was about, “how we can protect the national identity in our respective countries and co­operate to win the battle against globalization.” (Engelhart 2013) Globalization and multiculturalism, are therefore the cause of Huntington’s torn societies, creating cultures that have feet in two, or more, civilizations, and that cannot agree on what is right or wrong, or how people, groups and religions should be

Perhaps, one of the highly debated issues in the electoral procedures of different European nations is about the extreme right. Based on the premise that the nation is the primary unit of social and political organization, extremist nationalism has been revived since the demise of communism. Unlike civic nationalism, which stresses equality and solidarity, the exaggerated, chauvinistic, and aggressive nationalism of the extreme right upholds the significance of the nation and national identity against any other value. Each person is defined by membership in ancient ethnic and cultural groups that are hierarchically arranged according to the "natural order." In the extreme rights’ view,

History has shown how new ideas and new technology has brought smaller powers together that were shaded in darkness and blended them together into one super power that came into the light. Just as the original 13 colonies set aside their differences in religion, and creed to come together and fight for their new idea of independences from under the crown, cultures from around the world have been doing the same utilizing todays technology. The concept of a global village is something that is defined in grey. As Barnlund suggests, its not just takes in to account people inside a spastic country but in all countries living together in either peace or war on this earth. As Barnlund states, “Each new stretching of human sensitivity and loyalty has taken generations to become firmly assimilated in the human psyche. And now we are forced into a quantum leap from the mutual suspicion and hostility that have marked the past relations between peoples into a world in which mutual respect and comprehension are requisite” (48). Barnlund is stating that as we grow closer and closer to the idea of a global village, it is hard for unto get along and live in peace and will be even harder to do so with the advancement of technology. Technology has helped advance the progress and speed of growth of the global village idea and practice in both good and bad ways. It has helped show the good in mankind, but also has distorted those images of mankind and humanity to show what appears to be the

President Zeman and others are also using the social identity theory to create the ‘us’ vs ‘them’, which the automatically divides and creates prejudicial attitudes towards the ‘them group’. The securitization theory and the social identity theory are both political in nature as once the population accepts the threat or ‘us v.s. them’ ideaology, then it enters the political policy agenda. The policy agenda will be pushed with momentum by the perceived reality of the threat, which creates solution to the problem.

Human beings naturally are social creatures. In order to survive, humans have since been working together. People rely to each other in order to remain alive, whether it be with finding food, building houses, or with finding jobs. There is one famous quote by John Donne that says “No man is an island”. Humans have this need to belong in a group. This need for co-existing is what lead people into forming nations. Nations are groups of people who have a very strong bond of identity; may it be with having the same ethnicity or with having the same interests. One known description of a nation is Benedict Anderson’s (1983) conception of nations as imagined communities. They are imagined “because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 1983, p. 15). By belonging in a certain nation or growing up in a certain environment, one develops their own national identity. There are a lot of factors as to how you can identify to a certain nation. Certain factors would be your language, ethnicity, culture, relationship to your land, your religion, spirituality, views with politics, or your land’s geography. As social beings, having a group you identify with has a very great effect on you. However, there also are