Original scientific paper

Nation and National Identity

Petar Korunić

Abstract

The paper is a part of extensive research on cultural and ethnic pluralism in Croatia, on different types of social, religious, cultural, ethnic and national identities, and relations toward other identities, ethnic groups, nations and cultures. Ethnic revival in the modern world – as well as persisting ethnic and national changes, differences and conflicts (social, ethnic and national) in all areas, in the past and at present – as well as the lasting presence of the problem of researching the phenomenon of nation and nationalism, inspired many researchers in social sciences to research thoroughly the phenomenon of ethnic and national identity. There a difference between the ethnic and the national. These are two different notions (ethnic and national), two different societies (ethnic and national), and two different identities (ethnic and national). Ethnic groups have always been connected with the history of mankind: with man and with relations with people. They can be found in all regions of the world and in all periods since prehistoric times. Cultural and ethnic diversity (pluralism) are not new. Ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as social pluralism, existed in the past and exist now, in our modern world. The earliest ethnic communities (proto-ethnic groups: tribes, races, ethnic groups) and ethnic identities ore of older origin than nations and national identities. This is because nations and national states, which are the result of the culmination of the process of ethnic formation of a community, and national identities, are fairly recent phenomena, formed between the end of 18th and the end of the 20th centuries. This is the model in which ethnicity and the ethnic identity are viewed as a process in which different social, ethnic and/or national identities originate, continuously develop and transform (1) within organized ethnic groups, (nations), sub-ethnic groups, and their subcultures (ethnic groups); (2) on the level of continuous social changes, social relations and situations, and (3) on the level of interpersonal relationships in the process of social interaction. In the course of these on-going changes in the present, and greatly influenced by modernization and integration of societies and modern social systems, we are witnesses of the birth of entirely new phenomena. Besides individual and group identities we can also see the formation of entire collective identities: cultural, educational, political, economic, ethnic, national, etc.

Keywords

ETHNIC; ETHNIC GROUP; NATION; CROATIAN NATION; NATIONALISM; ETHNIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITY; CULTURAL IDENTITY; MODERN SOCIETY

Hrčak ID:

13687

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/13687

Publication date:

30.6.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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