Pre-modern social group conception was centripetal and hierarchical, not horizontal

Evidence

It would be a mistake to view the former as a kind of theological technocracy. The languages they sustained, if abstruse, had none of the self-arranged abstruseness of lawyers’ or economists’ jargons, on the margin of society’s idea of reality. Rather, the literati were adepts, strategic strata in a cosmological hierarchy of which the apex was divine. The fundamental conceptions about ‘social groups’ were centripetal and hierarchical, rather than boundary-oriented and horizontal. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 65

Categorization

• XREF: This centripetal-horizontal contrast prefigures Anderson’s later ‘deep, horizontal comradeship’ definition of the nation; scaffolds the toolkit. — connects to: Pre-national social identity was relational, not categorical. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 38; Pre-modern great communities imagined themselves via sacred script, not ethnicity — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 60; Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 169 (+2 more)

Related

• Pre-national social identity was relational, not categorical. (similarity 0.85)
• Pre-modern great communities imagined themselves via sacred script, not ethnicity (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness #corroborates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 169