Nations and Groups

“We don’t believe in boundaries. Borders. Nothing like that. We are here thousands of years before the whites. We are here before maps or quit claims. We know where we belong on this earth. We have always moved freely...We pay no attention to what isn’t real. Imaginary lines...We don’t see any border” (Silko 216).

“Nationalism has to be understood by aligning it, not with self consciously held political ideologies, but with the large cultural systems that preceded it” (Anderson).

Native American society, an example of a cultural system preceding Nationalism, is characterized by its lack of borders. “We know where we belong on this earth.” Native American society, unlike western, nationalistic society, is not defined by location. Land is understood, but not part of societies definition. Nationalism needs to be understood in light of this because it is defined by exactly this characteristic. Nationalistic societies are defined chiefly by their location. Native American society is defined by group bonds and ancestry and history. In “The Almanac of the Dead,” we can move about in space and time because the group is not limited by these dimensions. In a nationalistic society, leaving the bounds of the nation would take us outside its group. Therefore we can see how simply Nationalism relates to preceding cultural systems. Nationalism artificially created a bond within its society, creating a united group regardless of the actual connections of its members.