The Survival of Ethnic Groups

Author Anthony Smith, in his book “Myth and Memories of the Nation,” devotes his fourth chapter to the study of the development of ethnic groups and their survival throughout history. Smith defines an ethnic community as a “named human group claiming a homeland and sharing myths of common ancestry, historical memories and a distinct culture.” Smith also goes into a discussion of the idea of ethnic election, which is the belief by certain people that they are “chosen” from above. These ideas have become increasingly important in the 21st century, as ages old political boundaries are being broken down by civil war and the reclamation of ethnic identity. Smith’s analysis gives a template for academics and intellectuals, as well as leaders of ethnic groups, to understand the move away from a melting pot towards a global devolution toward ethnic regionalism.

Using such examples as the Arabs of the Crusades and the Muscovite Russian State, Smith provides four distinct patterns of the creation and survival of ethnic groups throughout history. One such pattern is the imperial-dynastic pattern, which attaches the election of the ethnic group to the ruling dynasty and the maintenance of this rule found in the attachment to members of the group to symbols created or associated with the rulers. Essentially, this pattern means that members of this group will always associate their ethnic group with those symbols attached to the ruling dynasty. The second pattern is the communal-demotic pattern, which is an effort by a conquered people (i.e. the Israelites) to attach the election myth to the connection between the land and the people of the ethnic group.