Placing Bergne: A Sociological Analysis

Primordial sentiments may arise from an individual's language, place of birth, a particular religion, culture, or traditions and or rituals, but mainly it is derived from an individual's ethnicity. It is important to know that primordialists believe that each individual is born into a nation or ethnic group. A nation is an entity which has been in existence since the beginning to time. According to primordialist theorists, these feelings of attachment of an individual to their ethnic group provides a foundation for a bond with others of the same or similar racial background or geographic origin. An example of this in real life is when two Japanese exchange students who come from different prefectures meet at the University of

[2] Bergne was born in the Belgian Congo and lived in occupied Belgium during World War II. During this time, and in his time doing fieldwork around the world, he was able to experience the ethnic conflict and racism. Placing Bergne's explanation on primordialism can be seen through the lens of sociobiology. He claims that ethnic groups and nations should be seen as forms of extended kin groups. He even refers to early ethnic groups as 'inbreeding superfamilies' (Smith 147), and states that genetic 'relatedness' is the determining factor of human cooperation. The question that comes up from this way of thinking is how humans can differentiate between their own kin and the others. The answer that Bergne gives is that humans use cultural markers to identify blood and 'others'. These markers may include language, religion, customs, dress, mannerisms, or

Often in many societies, superficial qualities such as the color of one's skin, hair or eyes, and other physical qualities reinforce the common belief of common ancestry. This may be reinforced by a common culture, enemy, or language, these are some of the strongest factors which define a group's identity. These common factors reinforce each other over several generations, and a myth of the race is created. A notable example is the Ancient Romans. Despite being the product of several tribes coming together in the early days of their civilization, they developed the creation myth of Romulus and Remus, which they could use to explain their beginnings of a race despite the fact this story probably didn't happen. However, after several generations, there were 'Romans' who looked a certain way, spoke a specific language, and had a unique culture, and more importantly, the myth or Romulus and Remus were held as the true origin of their civilization. The Romans became a powerful ethnic group which was the regional power for centuries because they were able to create an ethos of their own ethnic group to motivate Romans to fight, kill and die for their cause. Primordialism would look at the Romans and state that the external appearances as well as their shared history, and language is what made the Romans, Romans. This is the strength of the