Ethnic Conflicts and Ancient Hatreds: Cultural Concerns

Abstract

The view that ethnic conflicts today can be traced back to ancient group hatreds is known as essentialism, sometimes also called ‘primordialism.’ This perspective dominates the portrayals of ethnic conflict in newspapers and magazines. Contemporary ethnic animosities, according to this view, are based on inherent differences of race, religion, or culture, going back into ancient times. Few academic scholars subscribe to the essentialist view today. Those who came to be known as ‘instrumentalists’ launched the first systematic attack on essentialism. The key proposition of instrumentalism is that political leaders use ethnic identity for purely instrumental purposes—power or resources—regardless of whether they believe in ethnicity. Since the mid-1980s, another important view has emerged: constructivism. The central claim of constructivism is that the formation of ethnic or national identities is a modern phenomenon. It has little to do with ancient times. In postcolonial societies, for example, the major contemporary ethnic cleavages were a creation of the colonial power and, given the immense power of colonial masters, such divisions have endured, and will last for a long time. This article presents a brief overview of all three approaches.