Comment

Comment by Maria de Fátima Amante on September 17, 2009 at 3:35pm

Hello John

thaks for your interest in my book. If you read in portuguese I will be happy to send you a copy. Just e-mail me your adress.
Fátima

Comment by John Postill on September 17, 2009 at 3:24pm

Obrigado Ines. Non te preocupes, eu leo otras lenguas romances con moito gosto, para eso me crie en Espanha!

I haven't done research on borderlands but my working hypothesis is that international borders, even today within the EU, still matter a great deal. They are not dissolving or going all blurred and fuzzy as hoped by some. When you cross an international border, you are stepping into another culture area, even in 2009.

Contra Barth, I suggest it's not so much the borders as the stuff contained within them that matters: historically centralised states (around Madrid and Lisbon) that developed their own transport and telecommunication networks, political systems, common market, public culture, lingua franca, overseas projections, etc. Yes, there are strong centrifugal tendencies in the regions, esp. within the Spanish state, but you can't undo centuries of cultural homogenisation in a few decades.

My question is: is there any evidence that border regions of Spain and Portugal are becoming culturally, linguistically, etc, more similar or hybridised?

Comment by Inês Neto Galvão on September 17, 2009 at 2:27pm

Hello John!

Here is the reference you asked:
Amante, Maria de Fátima *Fronteira e Identidade. Construção e Representação Identitárias na Raia Luso-Espanhola*, Lisboa, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas/Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, 2007

Unfortunately there isn't an english version of it. The title would be something like *Border and Identity. Construction and Representation of Identites in the Portuguese/Spanish border*.
The author entangles concepts of national identity and border, selecting a field where the legal border has supposedly disappeared inside the European Union. She traces links between the geopolitical context of this border region, cultural contacts and social networks between both sides, as well as cultural representations of 'us'/'others'.

I'm sorry if I'm unable to give you a better summary of her work - I haven't looked at it properly yet. But for what I got from my first readings, I think it would be very interesting if we could depart from this particular case and think, for example, about European Union as a political project that influences how the national borders are reinvented as simbolic references among the local populations, and how these populations imagine themselves as part of something bigger (being a "national community" or an european one).

Ok, maybe I'm biased because I had Amante teaching me several subjects during my bachelor - and she would always have these glowing eyes while teaching us of "anthropology at its best". And I know Vitor fell in love with nationalisms because of her... So, we are all biased ;-)

But in this book, built up from her PhD thesis, she allows us to follow her delightful ethnographic observations side by side with interesting documental and theorical analyses.

It's a shame that there's no translation to english (yet?). But maybe you can contact her through this network (she's a member of this group) and share your thoughts with her.

Comment by John Postill on August 18, 2009 at 1:24pm

Ola Vitor, have you got a reference to that book by Maria de Fatima Amante? many thanks

John

Comment by Luca Guiduzzi on August 13, 2009 at 11:56am

Dear Friends,
I was reading-up on paper about congruent relations between nationalism and culture, and the pivotal role of the latter in the constitution of the national identity as a form of ethnic politicization, written by Anthony D. Smith, a skilled in this field...and so, it has conjured me up this peculiar user-group.

This is the link: http://www.jstor.org/pss/2625550

I hope it will be appreciated.

Comment by BHKTOP POMANOB on July 11, 2009 at 11:56am

Dear Anthropologists,

Here I leave two good reading suggestions, which I believe to be very interesting in this particular area. These are two books, with some time now, but very interesting: The first, belonging to Giddens, Modernity and Personal Identity, and the second one belonging to my dear Professor Carlos Diogo Moreira, Identity and Difference, the challenges of the cultural pluralism.

I also, strongly advice all my dear friends anthropologists, to read ALL the scientific work, written by Professor Maria de Fátima Amante. Specially her book, Border and Identity, a high quality study made in the portuguese-spanish border area.

I promise to keep on feeding this forum with scientific publications, interesting ideas and wait for your feedings as well, which are the most important thing this keep this forum up to date.

Comment by BHKTOP POMANOB on June 30, 2009 at 10:44am

Friends,
As I noticed that, between all of the good groups created in this forum, Identity and Nationalism did not existed!
Therefore, and since I believe this is an important area for anthropology, I invite all persons to give their opinion, contibute, to share knowledege in this particular area of study!! All people are welcome!!