comparative/fuzzy nationalism
Once upon a time I thought about doing a master's in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography. Now that I've orbited around anthropology courses for a while I'm glad beyond words that I didn't. But somewhere in the middle, when I was, well, between British Racing and Grey-asparagus in judgment, I read The Nuer and found myself rather unfairly dismissive of E-P's insight that people will give different identifications for themselves depending on who's asking. I figured this was trivial.*
But now I think I'm seeing this phenomenon E-P wrote about in world cup chatter and it's a lot more puzzling than I gave it credit for. Consider, in an otherwise straightforward piece from Belfast Today on opposition to England in Northern Ireland: [English] friends ...pledged their wholehearted support for their country... "You give as good as you get but I would support Northern Ireland if England weren't in it."
Or, via facebook comment (that trove of scientific data): I'm having to support France as well as England which depresses me a bit because I fear they're more likely to win than us
Having to. And all, AFAICT, (note massive hedge) based on geographical (and maybe political) proximity.
I confess I don't get it. How should I identify, who should I support**, if I didn't support who I do, and why?*** Should I support the various teams of what we'd otherwise call the United Kingdom?**** European Union? Commonwealth? Countries with Initial vowels?
But other people do get it. If the right person asks them, or if their first choices get knocked out, they'll suddenly identify as... well, I'm not sure. Guests of another country's fan base? Irredentist solidarists? Friendly neighbours? Provisional allies, defined by just the right common enemies? Supporters. Voters for that team, that is not their first choice, but has become their avatar in the contest. Emotional investors.
*depending on who's asking I'm either Cornish, British or European; Goy, Gringo and/or Farang; a roleplayer or a game designer or someone who once played games or a writer or historian or sometime artist. I see now, though, that one of the stable elements of my identity is outsider (which is both rather a stupid and an unglamourous thing to be) and a good part of my shifting self-description has been an ongoing effort to distinguish myself from whatever tribal identifications were going around, and I think that's a very different thing from what excited E-P.
** in the Mitchellian sense that my "support" means nothing whatever and is only used as a device for speaking about, um, this stuff.
*** My support for Brasil comes from a desire for domestic/conjugal harmony. And because it's fun to support Brazil - at least, more fun than supporting say Greece or Nigeria.
**** no can opener provided for that one, sorry. I got no worms for you today on that score.
But now I think I'm seeing this phenomenon E-P wrote about in world cup chatter and it's a lot more puzzling than I gave it credit for. Consider, in an otherwise straightforward piece from Belfast Today on opposition to England in Northern Ireland: [English] friends ...pledged their wholehearted support for their country... "You give as good as you get but I would support Northern Ireland if England weren't in it."
Or, via facebook comment (that trove of scientific data): I'm having to support France as well as England which depresses me a bit because I fear they're more likely to win than us
Having to. And all, AFAICT, (note massive hedge) based on geographical (and maybe political) proximity.
I confess I don't get it. How should I identify, who should I support**, if I didn't support who I do, and why?*** Should I support the various teams of what we'd otherwise call the United Kingdom?**** European Union? Commonwealth? Countries with Initial vowels?
But other people do get it. If the right person asks them, or if their first choices get knocked out, they'll suddenly identify as... well, I'm not sure. Guests of another country's fan base? Irredentist solidarists? Friendly neighbours? Provisional allies, defined by just the right common enemies? Supporters. Voters for that team, that is not their first choice, but has become their avatar in the contest. Emotional investors.
*depending on who's asking I'm either Cornish, British or European; Goy, Gringo and/or Farang; a roleplayer or a game designer or someone who once played games or a writer or historian or sometime artist. I see now, though, that one of the stable elements of my identity is outsider (which is both rather a stupid and an unglamourous thing to be) and a good part of my shifting self-description has been an ongoing effort to distinguish myself from whatever tribal identifications were going around, and I think that's a very different thing from what excited E-P.
** in the Mitchellian sense that my "support" means nothing whatever and is only used as a device for speaking about, um, this stuff.
*** My support for Brasil comes from a desire for domestic/conjugal harmony. And because it's fun to support Brazil - at least, more fun than supporting say Greece or Nigeria.
**** no can opener provided for that one, sorry. I got no worms for you today on that score.