Primordialism, Constructivism, or Conservatism? (14.12.2024)
A joint lecture by Vitaliy Dribnytsya and Serhiy (the “Ukraine Is Not Russia” channel) on ethnos, nation, and the approaches of ethnopolitics. The main content (primordialism/constructivism, the nation as an “imagined community” and a “daily choice”, the formation of modern nations from the late 18th century) repeats claims already present in the article on the “artificiality” of the Ukrainian nation (source 2022-10-18-etnopolitologiya-azy). The article takes only what is new: Natalia Starchenko’s “conservatism” as a third approach (the rooting of the ethnos in the Middle Ages on a broadened source base) and the role of the Czech philologists Šafárik and Hanka (early 19th c.), who recorded Ukrainian (“Little Russian”) as a separate language and therefore a separate ethnos.
Key moments
- 07:09 Natalia Starchenko — 'conservatism' as an approach between primordialism and constructivism
- 12:54 Šafárik, Hanka, and the Czech philologists (early 19th c.): 'Little Russian' is a separate language, not a dialect
- 20:09 Estate society: ethnic group did not concern the individual; ethnic consciousness manifested outside the state