Oh, man. I've pretty much abandoned nationalism studies for the time being because the lessons always seem to be the same (or I'm having trouble seeing past the most rudimentary ones) - national food, national dress, national monuments, language, all seem to be constructed in similar ways for similar reasons. My favourite by far is the Thai variant, which AFAICT was born when the ethnically Chinese royal court adopted a particular set of Bangkok street dishes, so as to paint that Chinese court as populist by fiat, and that fiat continues today, with Thai restaurants abroad being subsidised by the government back home with decorations and cookery classes and so on.
Ethiopian/Eritrean's a really interesting case too, right? The civil war, the unification in US restaurants, injera bread as the defining characteristic. Honey wine. I sometimes wonder how these things form if it's not by centralised dictat.
no subject
Oh, man. I've pretty much abandoned nationalism studies for the time being because the lessons always seem to be the same (or I'm having trouble seeing past the most rudimentary ones) - national food, national dress, national monuments, language, all seem to be constructed in similar ways for similar reasons. My favourite by far is the Thai variant, which AFAICT was born when the ethnically Chinese royal court adopted a particular set of Bangkok street dishes, so as to paint that Chinese court as populist by fiat, and that fiat continues today, with Thai restaurants abroad being subsidised by the government back home with decorations and cookery classes and so on.
Ethiopian/Eritrean's a really interesting case too, right? The civil war, the unification in US restaurants, injera bread as the defining characteristic. Honey wine. I sometimes wonder how these things form if it's not by centralised dictat.