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    3A

    Uploaded by

    Jian Zi-Hao

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 34
    — | — Introduction Perhaps without being much noticed yet, 2 fundamental transforma tion in the history of Marxism and Marxist movements isuponus. ts most visible signs are the recent wars between Vietnam, Cambodia fand China, Thete wars are of world-historical importance because they are the fist to occur between regimes whose independence and revolutionary credentals ate undenlable, and because none of the belligercats has made more than the most perfunctory attempts to Justify the bloodshed in terms of 2 recognizable Merxst theoretical jpeespective. While ie was sill ast possible to interpret the Sino~ Soviet border clashes of 1962, and the Soviet military interventions in Germany (1953), Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and ‘Afghanistan (1980) in terms of - according to taste ~ social imperial- jam,’ ‘defending socialism,’ et, no one, ! imagine, seriously believes that such vocabularies have much bearing on what has occurred in Indochina If che Viemamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia ia December 1978 and Janaary 1979 represented the first large-scale ‘conventional war waged by one revolutionary Marxist regime against “another,! China's assault on Vietnam in February rapidly confirmed 1 Thomann ingyen clean a ote ‘ghost oaugunne To word pose mneodentanding shoul bes SERGE ence Be nso grew otf awed cashesberweesarnmansf he erust Id dare wager that in the the pce Ont he me outbeesofite-rate declining yr cera find the USSR andthe PRC let alone che reSter aodals states ~ supporting, of fighting on, the same side, ‘Who can be confident that Yugoslavia and Albania will not one day Wh ce br co om rancho wither of FOR IS, fom io cxampmens i Eaver Europe should be Rad A ss trichiovrhelming pretence renner ed ont naned coniceterween the vepion' ‘Mccain rom sre wenden the fact that since World ‘War Il every successful revolution has defined itself in national terms~ the People's Republic of China, the Socialist Republic of ‘amar andr adn dng har grounded af ey 2 eral and srl pee aber fos te prevevlatonty fo Comey. be esate Sovr Unon shares wih the Shed Rg of ret Brinton rer ld te ce anton chung econ ala naning apne ie es inch the lef he prentionl gnno eee ceca Sseoy he anor of wey cary menos En Han i peal ect in sting that “Marit mova sd et Lave teed shee settadl no ain form but in substance, i.e., nationals es bstance, ie. nationalist. There ie nothing eo suggest rs eeltionry movement tei rt ited Cea Pony a9, A Api 7, {ow a saci ope, calamari ee 2 nes a Nore, ail oe nat eet eon "rm Teen of eons osled trae 0 eee eietpeg ect et Shea Fee rican cope vormen anfic {Cesare 19) pha ein of Comered Aon Sele, 4 foie Se alee ibm home al heli Maer of Wa aed UK's ci Tne hgh osuch prey wih he USSR iy ts mame denotes: Grex British? 2 that this trend will not continue. Nori the tendency confined tothe socialist world. Almost every year the United Nations admits new members. And many ‘old nations, once thought fully consolidated, find themselves challenged by’ ‘sub'-nationalisms within their bordersnationalisms which, naturally, dream of shedding this ub- nest one happy day. The ceality is quite plain: the “end of the era of nationalism,’ co long prophesied, is not remocely in sight. Indeed, ‘nation-ness is the most universally legitimate valee in the political life of our time But if the faces are clear, their explanation remains 2 matter of long-standing dispute. Nation, nationality, nationalism-all have proved nororiouly dificul todefine, leralone toanalyse. In contrast to the immense influence thar nacionalirm has exerted on tie modern ‘world, plausible theory about it is conspicuously meagre. Hugh Seton-Waton, author of far the best and most comprehensive English-language text on nationalism, and heir roa vast tradition of Iiberal historiography and social science, sadly observes: "Thus 1am ddiven co the conclosion that no “scientific definition” ofthe mation ‘can be devised: yet the phenomenon has existed and exists. Tom ‘Nain, author of the path-breaking The Breatp of Briton, and hei the scarcely less vast tradition of Marxist historiography and social science, candidly remarks: "The theory of nationalism cepresents Marxism’s great historical failuce.® But even this confession ix somewhat misleading, insofar as it cam be taken to imply the regrettable outcome of long, c}f-conscious search for theoretical clarity. It would be more exact to say that nationalism has proved an Concomfortable anomaly for Marxist theory and, precisely for that teason, has been largely elided, eather chan confronted. How else t0 explain Marx's failure 10 explicate the racial adjective in memorable formulation of 1848: “The proletariat of cach country 3 vie Hobibswm, ‘Some Reflections on “The Breakup of Bite 1 Rs 1 Sgr eke TD a Se his Neos on Ste, — ESE Te dee Jnwr, Nw Loft sew, 94 (November December 1978) 9 5 Tcomay clad unchanged The Broo ores hare 338), sanded COMMUNITIES a first ofall src maters with its oun bourgeoisie" sr fen, ee ne em, come He de ae ey es een ly heoretically the relevance ofthe adjective? Why is this segmentation ‘of the bourgeoisie world-class insofar as itis defined in terms of Si clegowe of production theoretically significant? Ce er me ena gets for eo ee he eam fetal, My nS rat ad ier! teary base a LS ie nen cent te phenorene ie 1 as it were, a Copernican = spice a Se of dt weeds le ee eo ail ceo oe ced Se a aad needy weed iw yo reg poe ee ee en pa haiabo pn eyeener een [RO ge bette atace of ee meee orth ae eed aE Shad cam were pomesoe tlnen of taopes “cromsing’ of discrete historical forces; bat that, omce created, they ‘became “modular,” capable of bei it ar ‘igen lenin os pty af nl re merge be merged with ee ese eeenee (aed aco cmos et ee ht why these particular caltucal artefacts bz eta x a aave aroused such deep Taken : ‘on mtinalen, Hane Kah ool ee ing fet of academic scholar erent ketone aed eraser nong : fn peril comin. Remo oePEY ston inal even en sb oe ar ee Remnen sle cbea the word Se ce cael gel el he Roch CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS Before addressing the questions raised shove, it seems advisable to consider briefly the concept of ‘nation’ aud offer 2 workable definition, Theorists of nationalism have often been perplexed, not 9 say irritated, by these three paradoxes: (1) The abjective modernity ff ations to the historian’s eye vs. their subjective antiquity inthe tyes of nationalists. (2) The formal universality of nationality as a Sociocultural concept in the moderna world everyone ean, should, will ‘have’ a nationality, as he or she ‘has" a gender-vs. che irremediable particularity of its concrete manifestations, such that, by definition, "Greek" nationality is sui generis. (3) The ‘political’ ewer of atonalisms vs. their philosophical poverty and even Facobereace. Inother words, unlike most other isms, nationalism has ‘acver produced its own grand thinkers: no Habbeses, Tocqueville, Marxes, or Webers. This ‘emptiness’ easly gives rise, among coumopolitan and polylingual intellectuals, to 2 certain con Gescension. Like Gertrude Stcin in the face of Oakland, one can father quickly conclude that there is ‘no there there’. IC is characteristic that even s0 sympathetic a seadent of nati ‘Tom Nairn can nonetheless write that: "Nationalism" pathology of modem developmental history, as inescapable 25 ‘neuron in the individual, with much che same essential ambiguity attaching to it, similar built-in capacity for descent into dementia, footed in the dilemmas of helplessness thrust upon most of the world (Che equivalent of infantilism for societies) and largely incorable.* Partof she difficulty is that one tends unconsciously to hypostasize the existence of Nationalism-with-a-big-N (rather as one might Ingeswith-a-capta-A) and then to classify “it” asm ideology. (Noe that if everyone hasan age, Ageismerely an analytical expression.) It would, | think, make things easier if one treated it 2 if belonged With kinship” and ‘religion rather than with ‘hberalism’ ot “fascism’ Ta. an anthropological sprit, then, 1 propose the following acted COMMUNITIES etiam of th to: iti an imagined poles comumuniy = and rely Kmited and sovereign. imagined as both nh bers of even the smallest mation will it fame es em, oF even eae ve oy permis of exch iesteimage oftheir communion? imagining in ht snl back-baded way ean fee pa Or Femme d'une nation ext gb tous les when er esteoup de chovesencomman east que tus sient indies Pehoen ® With 2 certain ferocity Gellner makes 2 oo ec ahen heer that "Nationalism is not che caer Font lf cnsciosnes: it vent ations where ‘they do not exist." The drawback to this formulation, however, is that Gellner is s0 anxious to show that nationalism masquerades sales fle pretences that he 2similats ‘invention’ to fabrication’ se fast eather than imagining’ and eration’. this way be ‘rie ac communities enitt which can be advantageously Jrapsed eatin cl eammanies lager than primordial Willages of face-to-face contact (dnd perhaps even these) are Inogied, Commies ste to be ditnguhed, not by thee {alsity/gemineness, but by the style in which they are imagined. evans vlges have always known tha they are connected to Tene ey ave ever sen, bate, Ges were one imagined fertility indtntely sietcable nets of Kinship a ee quite recently, the Javanese language si ee . abrriction “society.” We may today think ofthe French socrcy ofthe ann rime tacos: bu surely ie was imagined 9 CE Sn Wha, Na ee wie, CES Won, Ne od Sp SAT a ema | seca number rm ‘can find tosay is that» ‘irda ae ase wall Enea. Que gence” ope aden” nO Hay om cope amp ct rich ns Compl 982. He Seton fae ee Suin-Rarhclemy, les manacrer Sipe me’ etgs pnn ee rial ad Chg, p16 Enphats added, ms commanity comet, redone We may tame ‘ inrropuction this way only very late. To the queton "Who isthe Comte de 7” the normal answer would have deen, not ‘a member of the wcocrny. "bet the lord of X, the ancl ofthe Baronne de Yo» thie of the Duc de Z. “Te ation is eagine as ied becaoe even the largest of them encompassing perhaps a billion liviag human beings, ‘has finite, if crease? paundaries beyond which he other nations, No nation settee itll coermnons with mankind. The most mesianic isd nt dream ofa day when al the members ofthe human aan in ce nation inthe way that ie was pow, in certain Te lide ny, Chetan decom of = wholly Chistian planet. reset ed assed becae the concept was borin an agein ere tenment ro Revoluson were destroying the legitimacy eae eeny ordained, hierarchical dynastic seal. Coming (© cen ere opt of human hitry when even the most devout a ay caivera cligion weteinescapably contented with aoa rckom of ch religions, andthe alomorphism betwee i eelogia clams and terol stretch, nation dream aoa nt ander God, dct. Te gape and emblem of Skis freedom inthe sowerengm sae soy agind a 2mm, cause, egrdet of te a ey an explaadon atm pevalin each, he nation ace ine ad ava deep, horizontal comradeship, Una i is alway comet ea makes ic ponibl, ower he as #0 CERES I ef people nor tomuch ils willingly ie for such limited imaginings x mes rings abruply face co Gace with the cnta one, Sd by atonal wha makes the sakes na problem pod cacy more than vo cencr) gene 28 colossal sacrifices? I believe that the beginnings of ananswer ie in che alearal roots of nationalism 2 ie amg ne ying at nA a Tor example. fie! o ‘0a in ee ae tie Agea Retain 78) Bates 1a population of 23.000 eo en Pieanre af he nobles Hove De im 7 —— Cultural Roots [No more arresting emblems ofthe modern culrre of nationalism ‘exist chan cenotaphs 2nd tombs of Unknown Soldiers. The pubic Ceremonial reverence accorded thete monuments precisely haus they are either deliberately empty or noone knows who lies inside them, has no true precedents nearer times. To fel the force of his smademity one has only to imagine the general reaction tothe busy- body who ‘discovered’ the Unknown Soldier's name or insted filling the cenotaph with some real bones. Sactlege of 2 srange, contemporary kind! Yet voids these tombsareof identifiable moe femaing oF yrumortal souls, they afe nonetheless serrated with {howl sation imaginings (1s why 20 men ifsc sions The ui recs bed cent bet or pci Low inv whet sei nor ante cast bereaved rep b Lower ‘Sian wey Byanane clap Ji Herc Aree ar mle, se enable oes Te lea ey nbs en edo ilon atin li dh, nbown ako Bed Yeon ce wb curs, nding hn aa Sha ae ey 2 era oe nencxn man ee, a. ey many Yara, and hacer ng tcaced nen or nego, onc of heard ble ef he Bt ce bra atone of te mo ales] a a peresnagse cel pin} wont be nner of mre pmo Se eyo ’ ah aacnveD COMMUNITIES tayesnchombe without eling any need gH) maonality of tavern occupanes, What else could they be but Germans, americans, Argentinian... 2) “The cultaral significance of sch monuments becomes even clearer if one tiesto imagine, say, «Tomb of the Unknown Marxist or 3 eootaph for filles Liberal. Is + sense of absurdity avoidable? The feuon is that neither Marxism nor Liberalism are much concerned ‘with death and immoralcy. If the nationalist imagining is so Concerned, this suggests strong affinity with religious imaginings ‘As thi affine is by no means fortuitous, it may be useful to begin a ousideration ofthe cultural roots of nationalism with death, athe last of a whole gam of fata TF the manner of + man's dying usually seems arbitrary, his morality irineapable,Hunanliverae fall ofach combinations of recesity and chance. We are all aware of the contingency and ineluctabilty of ou particular genetic heritage, our gender. cut life- a, ou pial capabilities, our mother-tongue, and so forth. The seat mecit of traditional religious worldviews (which naturally ‘muat he citiguised from thei role in che legitimation of specific ‘tem of daminton aod exploitation hos een their concer with Farierthecomas,man ay species being, and the contingency of he extraordinary survival over thoutaads of years o Saracen ieee era ‘exponse tothe overwhelming burden of humat a ith impacene silence At the 10 the press, wos, by hi vues aad Ns aohisromeww eae Lprrcnt ius by his virtues and his achievements” van Reps Bey. "N 1 Bence, Mics nd he Rasa ore 200 7 same time, m different ways, religous thought alo responds to fbscure insimations of immorality, geueraly by transforming fatality into continuity (karms, orginal sin, ete.) lo this way, i concerns itself with che links between the dead and the yet unborn, the mystery of re-gencration. Who experiences thi child’ coo ception and birth without dimly apprebending » combined pectedoess, fortuity, and facalicy ia a language of ‘concnaity"? (Again, te disadvantage of evolutionary/progcesive thought is an almost Heracitean hosiey to any idea of continuity.) 1 bring up these perhaps simpleminded observations primarily ‘because in Western Europe the eighteenth century marks not only the daw ofthe age of nasionalism but the dsk of religious modes of thought. The century of the Enlightenment, of rationalist secslarism, brought with ie its own modern darkness. With the ebbing of religious belief, the suffering which belief in pare composed didnot disappear, Disintegration of paradise: nothing makes fairy more Grbicrary. Absurdity of salvation: nothing makes another style of Continuity more necesary. What then was required was 2 secular ceeMormation of fatality fto contnnity, contingency into mean. ‘Alive sll wee, few chings were (are)beter suited co thiscodthanan dca of nation, nation-states are widely conceded to be ‘new and “historical” the avons to which dhey give political expe always loont ott ofan immemorial past and, still more important, py abou ce, yeas ‘raters which formally accep th id wee TTHGTE MT tat teae Ediog wt he lm sole, eva, what aa tern poten id he poeta coceal an nachorwedged ee ses conception of man? But sce che rafting cent of Scbursang Feet alata ond Te Fa, ed Rayrond Willian" hoghtal aoe Sree Tmpanses Maven Challenge” Now Lt Rent 17 (oy Jone 9) pp. 3-7 "oth ve rein aro lny pe wih compete sei of he 35) geared an oe ie tonsa bed ended tough he very comer Fee ee eb cenerynvetion, ad ment fads indore ws cay craome A uth bneners Don 90, recrinet arog comes? Freee eR erocr oe ey nintendvceneary Jeane, Pine rae he Peloce's ow rnieshow dace intended cones jie Un expe Dc eded clara concet i “Jens sed Jo A. Lai db Te ‘Smmcpoe (F715), Talo rch ap collet. See Hay} {stand Aum Ko, 4" IMAGINED COMMUNITIES fe nto a lmidessFrute, It isthe magic of nationalism to carn ie rg deny, With Debray we might sy, "Yes, itis quite ceed tat | am born French; but afterall, France is eternal." Necdles to say, [am not claiming that the appearance of nationalism towards the end ofthe eighteenth century was ‘produced’ bythe erosion ofcligios certainties, or that tis erosion does not iuelf require a complex explanation. Nor am T suggesting that omehow nationalism historically ‘supersedes’ religion. What I am proposing is that nationalism has to be understood by aligning it, not With self-consciously held political ideologies, but with the large cultural systems that preceded it, out of which -as well as against ‘which ie came into being. For present purposes, the two relevant cultural systems are the religous community and the dynastic alm. For both of these, in their heydays, were tken-for-granted frames of reference, very much as nationality is today. It is therefore essential to consider what gave these cularal systems their self-evident plausibility, and at the same time to underline certain key elements in their decomposition. ‘THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY Few things ae more imprewive than the vast eritoial stretch of be ‘Ummah am rom Moroco tthe Saka Archipelago, of Christendom rom Paraguay to Japan 2nd ofthe Buddhist world from Sti Lanke to the Korean peninsla, The great sacral cultures (and for ott rcs bere may be permisible to ince "Conucinis) overated conceptions men commants, But Chistendo, ‘ke Ulamic Unmah and even the Middle Kingdom which, though ittoday as Chinese, imagined iteelf not as Chincse, but 3s "3p 197) 1, Eph aed suite Baas he Bu Bie fs Bay forbes. Reforenaghing oadices, snd ponder the 2 ‘CULTURAL ROOTS cemteal-were imaginable largely through the medium of language and written script. Take only the connie of leet Magedsoso met Dee ie Mca, eae thy re other's languages, incapable of communicating orally, they none. theles understood each other's ideograph, eure the sacred txts they shared exited only in clascal Arabi, In this enc, writen ‘Arabie functioned like Chinese characters to create a community out of sign, not sounds. (So today mathematical lngunge contin sn ‘ld tradition. OF what the Thai cll * Rumanian have no idea, and tice versa, bat both comprehend the symbel All the great clea Communities conceived of themselves a conmialy central, trough the medium ofa sacred language linked toa sperterentrial order of power. Accordingly, the strech of wetten Lai, Pali, Arabic or Chinese was, in theory, vnlimited. (Infact, the desde the writen Tangooge =e frcher it wat fom specch~the beter: a prnile everyone has access toa pure world of ig) ‘Yee auch clasical communis linked by sacred lnguages kad characte ditnet from the imagined commmntisof mdr nations Gar tildifecnce ws th lderconmamii” conidence the gee tcredness of thle laguager, and ths cer iess about “Sinion co membership, Chinese mandarinsloked with approval se patbavlaur who panty lemed co paint Middle Kingdom deopeama Theo barborans werlceadyhlfaytofullabvorption® rane cited wa vay ber than barbarian, Such an tiie wat PCy nor peculiar to the Chinere, nor confined co ang. ane ettpl, the fllowing policy on baracians’formale- eee carlycainetcnth-centary Colombian eral Pedro Fermi de Vargas: awl te ces bite ot Me et ce Ind The te a deyeone rem umree a ee eae vt ih deer sage ‘To expand our agriculture 3 Indians. Their idleness, sup ‘Mongols and Manchus were Hence the equasimiey with which Sincned acceped Som of Hee. 8 nuncineD COMMUNITIES dnt eric ode ca odgigthem pvt thie de pny td is that tht liberal still proposes to ‘extinguish’ his sein tem free of eibote” and ‘giving them ther than exterminating them by gun and How srking Indians in part by “dele private property inland nice as his eis in Br 1 do soon afterwards, Note als, 5 rocly, comic optimism: che Indian is ultimately redeemable ~ by Srpregnaion wich white, ‘vilized” semen, and the acquisition of rite property, lke eeonece. How different Fermin's attitude is From the later ‘European imperialis’s preference for ‘genuine’ Malays, Garkhas, and Hausas over ‘half-breeds,’ “semi-educated satves,'wogs’, andthe like.) Yet ifthe sacred silent languages were the media through which the ‘great global communities of the past were imagined, the reality of such apparitions depended on an idea largely foreign to the contemporary Wexem mind: the momearbitariness ofthe sign, The ideograms of Chinese, Latin, or Arabic were emanations of reality, noc randamly abcd representations oft, We are faa wi the long pate over the appropriate language (Latin or vernacdl ferthe mas nthe onic adhonsentguncsconay ae cr was literally untranshable (and therefore untranslated), because All's truth was accenble only through the unsubsttutable true fsa riven Arab Therein ides her of world separated rom language that al Inguages are equidistant (and thos inter= of reality, Rather, the litera were adepts, strategie strata in + Cosmological hierarchy of which the apex was divine. The fandamental conceptions about ‘social groups’ were centripetal and hierarchical, rather than boundary-oriented and horizontal. The attonishing power af che papacy initsnoondayisonly comprehensible in term of + wans-European Latin-writing clerny, ond 2 conception of the world, shared by virwally everyone, that the bilingual intelligentsia, by mediating between vernacular snd Latin, mediated eld he office of pon betcen 1 ard ISP ander Nichola Beaker iret read, Wt ey ed meet dor yo a li were ale art af tm, bd wich he eter ord wan ercely mee chi ca a parc hocicemed thermos Togens. ened soy egos ore profound reali Tip #3 1 Thin ant oy words bot the bl is 4auurogued Aq pauueos inuacinen COMMUNITIES ecw ca anne (Te awesomencs of excommunication scomaogy . el pus eH eloiy oe Simi, their wus coke waned steadily te nme rin sae eMhanne oa the two which are directly related to these effete explorations ofthe nom-Earopeas world swlich mainly bat by wo means exchsively im Europe “abruptly Tracned he caleural and geographic horizon and hence also men's Trecrpion of posible forms of human lie.”* The proces is altcady Shyu n he greatest ofall European cavel-books. Consider the {Blowing awed dexcription of Kublai Khan by the good Venetian CChastian Matco Poo 3 the ead ofthe thirteenth century: “The grand Khan, having obtained tis sigaal victory, revarned with great pomp aod ipl wo the capital ity of Kanbala, This took place [te moat of November, and be coainued fo reside there daring che months of February and March, in rhc latter was our festival of ‘Ease. Bing sae that this was one of ou principal solemnitie, be ‘commande al the Christine to arend him, and to bring with them ‘her Book, which coatins the for Gorpel af the Evangelists. After ‘cing ito be repeatedly perfamed with incense in a eetemonioss smamer, be devontly kised it, and dieected cha the same should be dove by al his nobles who were presen. This was his umual practice poe cach of the principal Chriscan festivals, such 28 Easter 20d {Chess and be observed he ume at che festival ofthe Saacet. Sepp solselter, Uno bing ated hismotve fr this conduct. be “There are fonr great Prophets who are reverenced. aed 1 hiker cory and invoke to ay rth isin ath supreme in hese," Ba from the ee 1M. fet Anta Aa gg 1 Sore Po Te oe dec ael Stare PS Eps aed, Nose 6 CULTURAL ROOTS mane in which his mary ced wah he ier a regarded the futh ofthe Chrinans ar the werk wale bee x ‘What is so remarkable about this passage isnot so moch the grest Mongol dynas’s calm religious relativism (it i still a rfyiou relativism), as Marco Polo's attirade and language. Itnever occurs 0 him, even though he is writing for fellow-Fnrapean Christians © tern Kublai a bypocrte or an dolar. (Ne doubt in part because respect to number of subjects, extent of teritory, and amount of revenue, he surpasses every sovereign that has heretofore been or that ‘now is in the world.) Andin the unselfeonscious we of ‘our (which becomes ‘their’, and the description ofthe faith ofthe Christians as “rues, rather than “rue,” we can detect the seeds ofa wervtorializa- tion of faiths which foreshadows che Language of many nationalists Cour’ nation is ‘the best’—in a competitive, compose fel). ‘What a revealing contrasts provided by the opening ofthe leer writen by the Persian eraveler‘Rica'tobis ricad‘Ibben’ from Paris in "1712's “The Pope is the chief of the Chrisians; be is an ancient sol, worshipped now from habit. Once be was formidable even pnces. For he would depos them ac easly as our magnificent sans depo the hing of Iremess or Georg, Bersobedy fearshim any longer He Claims tobe the sccesorof eof the crlest Chrisians, called sine Peter andi is certainly 2 ich mccesion, forbs teas is iumen and be as 4 grea coumery under his contol, eee eer Tie pied et ere ae ro es ceo ect gee eo iterate BT Tae don Thea Pram epe ” Jeuueoguueg fq pauueog uncineD COMMUNITIES be demonic personage (dim lite Carter scarcely resy, nor even 282 demonic f Nee Lay baa ae ace language il, a el Sen oe ae ogi a ye ak ly shows quite clearly the sacredness sn 3(Tisecon nh woth che teaching) Bt by Tce onber language og een tek: soa emey al tis was changing fst. The reasons fo he eee gor devin ot here the eet importance of print ca lb dscased below. isaficen to remind ourselves ‘Fro sae pace bre an Man ein that Taf teak primed before 100 were tek Fee alteay in vrnaculas).* If of the 88 editions printed Sepacein 1501 all boc 8 were in Latin, after 1575 a majority were sisop in French” Despite 2 temporary come-back during. the Comee-Reformation, Lain’s hepanony was doomed. Nor ate we speing spy of general popaarty. Somewhat later, but a no Tes diving speed. Lain ceaed to be the Tanguage of 2 pan- European high inteligensia. tn the seventeenth century Hobbes (0381678) was igre of continental renown because he wrote it the truh-language, Shakespeare (1564-1616), on the other hand, im the veraclee, was vrwally unknown across the CChntnel# And had English not become, cwe hundred years later he pre-eminent work-impeial language, might he not largely have feared his orginal inlerobrcoriey? Meanwhile, these men’¥cros Chanel neat-contemporarien, Descartes (1596-1650) and. Pascal (1es-1662) conducted mast of their correspondence in Latin; bot vitally ll of Voleaie's (164-1778) was in the vernacular.” ‘Aftet 164, with emer and fewer books coming out in Latin, and more and soc in the vernacular languages, publishing was ceasing to be a Latin (meaning nonetheless 19. Wid pp 8132 we ‘CULTURAL ROOTS iment emer fa word. he oa cx terger procs wich he werd coomanide ened Sacred pees weve poy open pl od ‘THE DYNASTIC REALM “These days itis perhaps difficalt wo pu onset pathetically ito a world in which the dynastic realm appeared for mostmenss the ool imaginable ‘political’ system. For im fundamental ways “seriou! tmonarchy lies transverse all modera conceptions of political. Kingship organizes everything around 2 high centre. Its egtimacy derives from divinity, not from populations, who, after all, are Subjects, ot citizens. In the modern conception. stare sovereignty i fally. atl, and evenly operative over cach square centimetre of a legally demarcated territory. But in the older imagining, where states were defined by centres, borders were poroo and inditine. Sid loversignier ded smpercepably int one anothes® Hence faradoniclly enough, the eae with which pre-modern empires nd Kingdoms were able co stain their rule over immensely hetro- [eneous and often not even caniguous, population for long pets cof time.” T33 Toge feck wor males aononeayesi BN Theor er Hp nn coe pera ‘egtsngg enor ne oe ‘en’ momecute ht cored cc ee ey et ie rm tna cen oy Sea eae een ator esos cee he ca rch ome ma ih ms mr, he ee th tower. ecard rs al Steen te ey hoe bn EY a atacenyesren ir ncertnly corecon een the 22, We may here noe na Sando penn bat 8 am ed mee cen Egon scot oc bare he os Ore we cal i th ee ch deme men seo pli Ee Focoye Ee appation de Le. Rone the » deuueoguued Aq pauueog uaciveD COMMUNITIES qu alo renember tat these antique monarchical sates a Tecnica by sels of id very ‘Sifrrcne from thet practised today. Through the general principle of sar cali, dyasie warsiages brought together diverse populations ser eee apices. Paradigmasic in this respect was the House of Falah Arthe ag went Bela gont it elic Astricrael Here in aaerkey abbreviated form, is the later €ymass”cialavore.® Emperor of Austr: King of Hungary, of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Gans, Slaven, Galicia, Lodomera, an Ilya; Kingof Jerusalem, ‘fo, Archake of Anta [sc Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Dake of Loc [3 ing, of Sszbarg, Styria, Carinthia, Cariola, and Bakoving Grand Dake of Tramylvania, Margrave of Moravia: Dake of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, and Gaunt of Annchwite and Sato, of Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa, and Zara: Procely Count of Habsburg 20d Tyra, of Kyburg, Gore, and (Gradiha: Dake of Tent and Brizen: Margrave of Upper and Lower Lauses and in Fria; Count of Hoheaembs, Fldkirch, Bregenz, Soueaberg, etc; Lond of Trieste, of atar, 2nd above the Windisch Mack; Great Voywed of the Voyvodina, Serva... ete. This, hi jusly cere, was, not with ape. yond ie emma ainges, nckeoaageead ‘captures of the Habsburgs." fs hackscringsand In rcalrus where polygyny was religiously sanctioned, complex systems of tiered concubinage were i tar beacause were ewential che integraton ofthe any aura of divinity, fo ies often derived their prestige, aside from 2m, shall we say, miscegenation ™ For such sia. Buc te sme prtcipe was 2t wo it 1 Mince Flr Esckerogs Fens Fern, Ike's scene. They ncaded psi, $2 Plc, 7 Danes 20 slits. Th "curious document i ong bee Frans Joys onset » cuLTuRAL ors smixtres were signs ofa superordinate sats. Itischaracteritc that there bas not been 2n “English” dynasty ruling in Londo since dhe cleventh century (chen); and what ‘sonality’ are we ro assign 0 the Bourbons During the seventeenth century, however for reasons that need. rot detain us here~the automatic legiimacy of sacral monarchy began it slow decline in Wester Europe ln 1, Charles Stare was beheaded in the Gist of che modera world’s revolutions, and during the 1650s one ofthe more important European states was ruled by 2 plebeian Protector rather than a King. Yet even in te age of Pope and Addison, Anne Stuart wats rang the scythe laying, ton of royal hands, cures committed ao bythe Bourbons, Luis XV ed XVI. in Enlightened France el he end ofthe ancien rgime ® But after 1789 the principle of Legitimacy had tobe lowly aod self- ‘consciously defended, and, nthe process, ‘monarchy became a semi Standardized model. Teand and Son of Heaven became “Emperors.” in foro Siam Rama V (Chulslongkorn) senthis sons ad nephews to the courts of St Petersburg, London and Berlin to learn the fanticacies of the world-model, In 1857, be insted che requisite principle of succession-by-egal-primogestur, chu bringing Siam Fico lnc with the “civilized” monarchies of Europe.” The new do heoee ia 10 an exratic homoserual who reued over a ealier age. However, veal i sscenion as Rama VI warsealed by of prneelings from Briain, Rusia, system brought to would cercainly have incer-monarchic approval the attendance at his coronat Greece, Sweden, Denmark~ and Japen'* Tila eats apa Topemame et sec ec laren rome v3) —_ 1S cle ne li ae sr ed Cae ee a ee "The Military, Goverament ‘and Society i NS PTE ee eat 10 ram 1 Bie BS a hm Se in Som, fhe Regnot Rant a seuueoguieg kq peuueog jt dc ns made oP We mot ft A kip ofthe ical sytem, bat, as We ot se. ram eben reaching fore in deal bo cid principle of Legitimacy withered sleaty Soe he MBS) oe SONI) Reine hw fb ereterbew Ped coy aie erg) wee 2 rent of Scharahors’ Ri eee ecacar efooms exch “patonal-Prosin. APPREHENSIONS OF TIME 1 would be shoresighted, however, t0 chink of the imagined ccommmunites of sations a simply growing out of and replacing religis communes and dynastic realms, Beneath the decline of ‘aered commanites, languages and lineages, «fundamental change ‘was aking place in modes of apprehending the world, which, more than anything che, made it posible to ‘think’ the mation, To get 2 feching for this change. one cam profitably turn ¢0 the Vinal representation of the sacred communities, such as the reliefs ane sained-las windows of mediaeval churches, or the paintings of ‘arly Italian and Hemish masters. A characteristic feature of such ‘epeesentations is something misleadingly analogous to. ‘mosern ds The shepherds who have followed the star co the manger bere Crt is bor bear the fezturs of Burgundian peasants, the Wists Mary is figured asa Tuscan merchant's daughter, In many ubsngs ‘he commisioning patron, in full bucgher or neble 2 Mote an Lal de 1s re eg a Mone Pron sy sice a Sreco swe antnbere y epa sapien" iat teapot towne ant id Seer pen mean Ret ae me Tomer leet A Hite of Mian, pp oh and 85, 2 CULTURAL ROOTS which dhe iguingof imagined reaiy was ove or SEL Getta he cy wget of specificities and pariculaites: this vei thet we hee ne sermon, that tale cis morality poy, thar tlic While de gee European Latinereading clvry was one cont elesene is he servcturing of the Christan imagination, the madanoe af oe conceptions to the iterate mass, by visual and sural reason always personal and particular, war ols wal Th habe eos Priest, whose forebears and frailties everyone. whe bead bn celebrations knew, was sill the direct intermediary bersccn bis parihiovers and the divine. This juatapasen ef the coon. taiversal and the mundane-particlar meaot that howesee as Christendom might be, and wat sensed wo be it manifested ioelf veouly t0 particular’ Swabian of Andalsin communiter at teplications of themselves, Figuring the Virpia Mary with Semitc™ feacues or ‘fst-ceneury’ comumes inthe restoring spit of the modem museum was unimaginable becanse the mediaesl Christin mind had no conception of history at an endless chan of cause and effect or of radical sparations berween past and preset Block observes that people thought they mustbe near th end af time. inthe sense that Christ's scond coming eosld gorar at any moment. St Paul had sid that ‘the day of the Lord cometh like» hit inthe night." Ie was thar natural for de great twelfecentury chronicler Bishop Otto of Freising to refer repeatedly to "we who have been placed at the end of ime." Bloch conclides that a soon st mediaeval ten ‘ave themuelves up ro meditation, nothing wa farther from their thoughts than the prospect of a long fature for a young and: vigorous human race. “hoertach gives av unforecblektch ofthis form of oncoo- 0. Bor ay the ea fader des metaphorcaeguialencinget pst with tries chanel wc fh lero 3M. Bloc, Fad Sing e pp 8 " 32 Avcrach, Amst pias aed, Compre Avge’ description ofthe OME Testament athe shadow of [cae bakwanl by] Gare" ied in Bloch, id Sony. |p Jauueogueg Aq pauuesg saci COMMUNITIES uerpretd as pref rece the te cic nsec prising Les se gr ian te Forme he asi 28 were = dard eae Tail Former, ten sal iiedrnen wore whicharlinkedeidher os ‘a connection which it is impossible to cer canine borin densi. wane established cr teh xeureaces ar eal Inked to Divine Providence, ay ron atc endevie cha pla of history 2nd supply che key anne aading, be heresnd wow snolongerammere Kak nan ey chan of eves, it issn onal something which has always ceric ildin the frre and scl, nthe eyes of God, i eling cteral, omething omiteporal, someting already ‘Stommated in be eal of frgmecary earthly event. He cighy seeses that such an idea of simllonity is wholly alien to Be ee ees dn st someting ne to whet Benjamin cals Mes ine, snsy of pata frrinan instantancos pros lnsuchs vel ths, word neal’ canotbe ol eal siguificance. * ‘eof ‘Out owe concen of simul i . . ltancity has been a long time in the sel femme ey comet nye dt ve yet to be well sadied, with the development of the secular “Sin Beis open ch dan pore a ie soeeel Soi iecreosees ba wl find it difficult to probe regi of meal, What has comet ke he ee sie eter aay ngs ‘Stone wich sian witwer,tamere ee Socal by metgrig and fllncn, bat by eee ett seared by chek and eens 2 PO coincidence, md ‘Why this transforma tied craton shoal bes importan fr the bith ofthe 3 Wale ethos, gg 2.20 lap ni er ie tac on cold ae tat ee ‘Seton coc once 4 ‘cutTurAt roots -Evrope in the eighteenth century: the novel and the wewepaper thee forms provided the techni cans for Te-proenagthe ed of imagined community that is the nation. Consider it the rctre ofthe ol-fhoned aol, svete appeal vot only ofthe manele of Basa bata of toy ‘contemporary dollar~dreadful.Icis clearly a device forthe presenta Gow of cmlaniy in bomogencom, empty tne” 2 complex flat upon de word ean Take fr arve parpones 4 nc of simple novels, whiha man (A) 3 wile (B) and {PEyrres (C) who in urs slower (D). We night imagine 2 sor oF ene chet or dhs segment 2 fllows: Tine 1 u i omic: A.quarrele with BL A telephones CD ges drank in ba Cand Dake love Bahopt diner at home with B D plays pool Chas an ominous dream [Notice that during this sequence A and Devermect, indeed may not even be aware of each other's existence if C has played her cards Shi What then actualy links A to D? Two complementary caccptions: First that they are embedded in ‘tociticr (Wessex, Labeck. Los Anpelee). These sociesiesare sociological enctics of sch fim and sable ele tat est members (A aD) crn crn described as passing exch other on the strect, without ever becoming acquainted, and still be connected.” Second, that A and D are wii pa ce neti liege eh Sakae idence cee eagle rm eg Sn ctw wing a et benlemtpcn fon aera re ee mre presage ae Eel siosnme ere ara neace doa tO wih Avr syceed 0%, the a of aca carry. The cng othe ite tebe Ine eventecnh centr: but he dinar see 80 Febre tton 8 8.C298 D006 acTines yep COMMUNITIES xs. Only they, like fhe onset cee Only they, embedded a he mils ofS opping, and D playing poo! aller Saree germs teed me a nc That te, bat by actors WHO may be largely unaware of one oe

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