Sociology 2239 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Yugoslav Wars, Primordialism, Proletarianization

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 2239
• Professor: Esra Ari

Document Summary

Primordialism or primordial attachment can be defined as communalistic affiliations and group identity, especially in pre-modern and traditional societies. Example of primordial identities:: identities of tribe, race, ethnicity, religion and nation. Hard version of primodialism: natural bonds, biological ties. Soft version of primordialism: social bonds, non-biological ties, not fixed but contextual, situation, flexible and relational, socially constructed. Durkheim: ethnic bonds lost ground in the course of human evolution from mechanical to organic solidarity which is dominated by dissimilarity and individualism. Weber: ethnicity cannot stand out as a meaningful category in modern and rational- bureaucratic societies where individuals calculate their interests and act rationally. Marx: class-based interests as true interests would prevail over ethnic identities under the pressure of advance industrialization and proletarianization of the masses. However, contrary to these assumptions, racial and ethnic identities have come to the fore in the late 20th and early 21st century.