Medieval identity formed through ethnogenesis rather than national statehood
Evidence
Before the creation of the nation-state, identity was shaped by ethnic status and a powerful sense of place. The recent scholarship on “medieval nationalisms,” much of which are situated around Benedict Anderson’s 1996 book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, does not suggest that medieval identities constituted some kind of pre-modern statehood. Ethnogenesis, the formation of identity according to one’s understanding of his or her origins, is a more apt descriptor for what went on in the Middle Ages. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 86
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Anderson’s Imagined Communities, providing the theoretical frame for how pre-national group identity worked. — connects to: European national identities were built on Germanic origin myths derived from Tacitus; Civilizational identity is fluid, not fixed or walled off — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 232; Medieval identity was localized rather than European or continental (+7 more)
- DEFINE: Defines ‘ethnogenesis’ as the operative medieval identity mechanism, distinct from nationalism.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 86