Food for Thought

Week 2: Tuesday, January 25

This looks like a lot of questions. These are a lot of questions. Nevertheless, these definitions and ideas that we will go over on Tuesday are the fundamental building blocks of this class, so you need to know all of it.

If you have the time, start reading Anthony Smith's Nationalism. I have already posted questions for that reading.

Questions Concerning Culture

I expect you to know the definition of culture presented in this piece. Pay especially close attention to the important elements stressed by anthropologists: symbolic composition, systematic patterning, learned transmission, and societal grounding. As you read, think about the weaknesses of the approach outlined in this piece.

1) What do all culture traits share in common? How do we figure out their meaning? Be as explicit as possible.

2) When anthropologists study a culture, do they emphasize the individual or the group? Why?

Max Weber, "Politics as a Vocation"

As you read this, think about the state's relationship to culture. How does the state influence culture and vice versa?

3) How does Weber define the state? Why does he define the state by its means rather than its ends?

4) What makes the state's use of force legitimate, and how can people be conditioned to obey the different types of leaders who exercise political power?

Benedict Anderson, "Concepts and Definitions"

5) How does Anderson define the nation? Be as explict as possible when you describe the major elements that constitute this definition.

Ernest Gellner, "Definitions" and "What is a Nation?"

6) How does Gellner define nationalism? Why must the concept of the state exist before the concept of nationalism can exist?

7) What are the two ways in which Gellner defines nations?

8) According to Gellner, what does nationalism do to the existing culture it inherits? In what ways does this action involve a self-deception? What purpose does this manipulation of culture serve?

Eric Hobsbawm, "Inventing Traditions"

As you read this piece, think about how the idea of invented tradition relates to Gellner's discussion of what nationalism does to culture.

9) How does Hobsbawm define invented tradition?

10) How and why do invented traditions emerge? In other words, what purpose do they serve?