historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

JUDEAN NATIONALISM 9
'tribal' nature of nationalism, still insists that there were no real
nations until the nineteenth century! 13 I shall return to these reservations
below but first I want to draw on this body of scholarship
to suggest a definition of nation and nationality applicable to the
ancient world.
Since I have trouble seeing a distinction between an ethnic and a
national identity, I begin with Weber's definition of the former: "We
shall call ethnic groups those human groups that entertain a subjective
belief in their common descent. ... it does not matter whether
or not an objective blood relationship exists. . . ." 14 To the subjective
belief in common descent I would add an equally subjective belief
in a common culture. Under the heading of culture I include language,
religion, customs, material culture, and concepts of historical
and geographic origins. Not all the latter items may be seen as indicative
of ethnic identity in every case but usually some of them are
invoked. 15 The subjective nature of the belief in both a shared descent
and a shared culture means that national identity is what contemporary
scholarship calls "socially constructed." 16 If we leave aside the
issue of subjectivity, my definition of national identity can be documented
in ancient literature. The clearest example may be found in
Herodotus VIII. 144. In this passage the Athenians are reassuring the
Spartans that they will not abandon the anti-Persian coalition. First,
the Athenians explain, they would never make common cause with
the destroyers of the temples and statues of the gods. Further,
there is our common Greekness [TO 'E ]: we are all one in
blood and one in language, those shrines of the gods belong to us all
in common, and the sacrifices in common, and there are our habits,
bred of a common upbringing. 17
13 See J. A. Armstrong, Nations before Nationalism (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1982); A. D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford and New
York: B. Blackwell, 1987); A. D. Smith, National Identity (Reno and London: University
of Nevada Press, 1991); W. Connor, Ethnonationalism: The Quest for Understanding
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
14 M. Weber, Economy and Society, vol. 1 (New York: Bedminster, 1968), 389. Note
how Connor, Ethnonationalism, 75, adopts this as his definition of a nation.
15 I found the discussion of J. M. Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997), 17-33, very useful.
16 Compare G. A. De Vos and L. Romanucci-Ross, "Ethnic Identity: a
Psychocultural Perspective," in Ethnic Identity: Creation, Conflict and Accommodation, ed.
L. Romanucci-Ross and G. A. De Vos (Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira, 1995), 350.
17 Translation of D. Grene, The History. Herodotus (Chicago and London: University
of Chicago Press, 1987), 611.