The Myth of Cultural Communion: Civilizations, Nations, and Ethnic Groups

Abstract

This paper describes and critiques the partitioning of people into discrete groups whose social action is supposed to be determined by group-unique, shared, coherent, and enduring and subjective culture. Specifically, it argues that the claims that civilizations, nations, and various types of ethnic groups are each constituted by such culture rely on arguments and suppositions which are theoretically and empirically untenable.