Nations are natural cultural communities

The argument

Nations are long-existing communities of people whose unity has been sustained by a shared cultural heritage, and this argument treats that heritage as the thing which actually holds a nation together — prior to, and independent of, any state that may later govern it. The heritage in question is specified rather than left vague. It might include language, religion, myths and legends, cultural artefacts, and value systems: the materials through which a community recognises itself and transmits that recognition to the next generation. What these have in common is that none of them can be created by decree. They accumulate, are inherited, and are held in common before anyone thinks to organise them politically. Modern ethno-symbolist theory develops the point by locating cultural unity in a common set of inherited myths and symbols. The claim is that such myths and symbols do more than decorate a culture: they form the basis of a common set of beliefs and values about the world, and supply a shared reference point for all members of the cultural community. A shared symbol lets people who have never met understand each other's assumptions, which is what makes a large community possible without continuous personal contact. If that is correct, then a nation is not an invention of modern politics. Nations are merely a modern expression of this ancient sense of cultural community — the same long-standing attachment, given a contemporary political form. Because the unity a nation depends on is inherited rather than designed, and is carried in the myths, language, and values a people already hold in common, this argument concludes that nations are natural cultural communities.

Context

Originating with Herder is the idea that mankind is divided into a variety of distinct incommensurable cultural communities. The idea has proved very influential and to this day many assume nations are, and should be, based on cultural unity.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Many modern nations contain a variety of different cultural groups and are nations nonetheless. Those nations which are culturally homogeneous only became so thanks to sustained political and governmental action to promote a particular national culture. Evidence of pre-modern cultural homogeneity is very thin.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Many modern nations are not culturally homogeneous so cannot be said to be built on cultural unity. [Rejecting P2] National homogeneity is rarely natural.