ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what separates the study of national identity from other forms of collective identity. It argues that the peculiarity and ritualistic uses evident in national identity are inextricably linked to three imperatives of the nation-state. These imperatives are the standardization of practices, the construction of homogeneity and the delimitation of common culture for all citizens in a given territorial sovereignty. National identity is shaped by the conflictive interplay between emotional attachments to traditionalism and the rational forces of modernism. It also shaped by popular mobilizations at times of negotiation or during cultural contacts resulting from rivalries, competitions or cooperations fostered by the interdependent world of nation-states. These practices and attitudes draw the contours of a limited, self-sufficient and introspective collectivity – the nation-state. In doing this, one needs two qualities of national identity: the capacity for self-recognition, and the ability to detect, recognize and acknowledge who the others are.
