Take the necessary time to think about the question below. After which, please offer a well thought out, well written, and compelling response to the question. Remember that your answer MUST respond to all parts of the question.
As this assignment is simultaneously a test of your knowledge of the concepts covered thus far AND an analysis and review of the assigned readings you must be mindful of your use of the assigned readings while responding to the question. ALL readings should be incorporated into your answer in some appropriate manner.
Midterm Analysis 1 Prompt:
As part of our class discussion, we established that objectification is a tool used to create symbols that assist in entrenching national identities. First, please offer a definition of the concept, noting conditions that would make it more or less successful. Given our definition of objectification, postulate as to whether objectification will be more successful when dealing with a primordial or a constructed identity. To what extent is that success contingent on the peoples sense of their community in comparison to others? Lastly, as peoples sense of their identity is based on some semblance of the past, as they understand it, and given the tools of objectification, is the following quote from Eugene Roosens true?
In the ethnic arsenal you can partially forget what you know if others do not notice or do not mind. You can add things if exact knowledge is not available. You can choose a suitable variant if different theories exist. You can combine and transplant Almost anything and everything are possible, as long as no falsehoods are told that are too obviously refuted by common knowledge and as long as the adversary is not too strong[1]
[1] Roosens, Eugene E. 1989, Creating Ethnicity: The Process of Ethnogenesis, Newbury Park, CA.: Sage Publications, pg. 160-161.
