De l'ethnicité à la nation. Un chemin oublié vers la modernité

Résumé

De l'ethnicité à la nation

Un chemin oublié vers la modernité

Dans cet article, l'auteur s'interroge sur la manière dont les groupes ethniques se sont transformés en nations dans la modernité. Il soutient qu'on ne peut étudier cette transition sans analyser la modernisation et la rupture des liens, des valeurs et des identités que celle-ci induisit dans le monde d'hier. En lieu et place se forgèrent des identités régionales et ethnonationales. L'auteur montre que sans qu'elles s'excluent mutuellement, l'identité nationale s'imposa pour deux raisons : 1) les relations ethnoculturelles se sont cristallisées historiquement autour de l'État; 2) l'identité nationale s'est avérée plus congruente avec la modernité. L'auteur s'interroge sur l'évolution d'un groupe ethnique non dominant vers le mouvement national tout en soulignant qu'elle demeure incertaine.

Abstract

From Ethnicity to Nation

A Forgotten Road to Modernity

The basic aim of this article is to inquire into the conditions which brought about the transformation of ethnie groups into modem nations. The author proceeds from the assumption that it is impossible to analyze this process without taking into account the economie and social transformation of late feudal society, usually referred to as the process of modernization. Accompanying the crisis of the old society was a break-down of former lies, values and identities. In their place, two new identities were offered : one regional and one ethno-national. The author concludes that although these two identities were not mutually exclusive, national identities won recognition (as the condition for nation-formation) in those instances where the following prerequisites held : 1) that already since the Middle Ages ties and relations within the ethnie group had been formed in combination with ties within the administrative whole (i.e. the state), and 2) that with respect to both the economie and social transformation and to the change in mentality, the concept of national identity responded better than did regional identity upon the arrivai of modem society. In this explanation, the author focuses on the evolution of a non-dominant ethnie group into a nation, and characterizes this development as a national movement, the success of which, however, was not assured in advance.