‘Oh motherland I pledge to thee …’: a study into nationalism, gender and the representation of an imagined family within national anthems

Lauenstein, Oliver; Murer, Jeffrey Stevenson; Boos, Margarete; Reicher, Stephen

doi:10.1111/nana.12123

Cited by 43 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In addition to any demographic explanations for the differences in mean fusion scores between the US and Indian subsamples, the potential effect of the dominant discourses about nationhood in both societies should also be considered. For example, the prevalence of discourses about national “brotherhood” and metaphors of the nation as an “imagined family” (Lauenstein, Murer, Boos, & Reicher, 2015) differs between cultures; hence, the language of identity fusion could be perceived as more or less natural depending on the prevalence of this type of discourse in a given society. In effect, people in some cultures may be more inclined to speak of “dying” for their “brothers” because such language represents the normal way of expressing patriotism in their culture and not necessarily because it reflects a deeper psychological commitment to the nation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beliefs in national continuity are related to essentialist thinking and to perceptions of the nation as a family

Siromahov

Buhrmester

McKay

2020

Nations and Nationalism

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National narratives serve to foster a sense of collective continuity—the perception that the nation has preserved its traits, values and goals across many generations. The present study explores some of the correlates of such perceptions of collective continuity (PCC). We predicted that people who see their nation as more continuous would tend to think about social groups in more strongly essentialist terms and to feel personally attached to other group members (a phenomenon known as identity fusion). An international sample of 307 respondents (predominantly from the United States and India) completed measures of PCC, social essentialism, identity fusion and national identification. Both hypotheses were supported at the level of the level of the full sample, suggesting that perceived national continuity is related to a general cognitive predisposition for essentialist thinking and also to one's sense of personal attachment to the nation. However, exploratory analyses by nationality revealed that the results could not be replicated with the Indian participants, potentially as a result of cultural factors. Identity fusion was also more strongly correlated to cultural/essentialist continuity than to historical continuity. Interpretations and directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beliefs in national continuity are related to essentialist thinking and to perceptions of the nation as a family

Siromahov

Buhrmester

McKay

2020

Nations and Nationalism

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“…The authors of an article that focuses on the role of the motherland image in national anthems express a remarkable opinion that the metaphor of an "imagined family" is a more useful concept toward understanding the nation than that of an "imagined community." The former helps to highlight links between gender and nationhood as family relations in four ways: (1) providing a clear, hierarchical structure; (2) prescribing social roles and responsibilities; (3) being linked to positive affective connotations; and (4) reifying social phenomena as biologically determined (Lauenstein, Murer, Boos, and Reicher 2015).…”

Section: Mothering a Nation And The Legitimation Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

The Symbol of the Motherland in the Legitimation and Delegitimation of Power in Contemporary Russia

Riabov

2019

Nationalities Papers

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The article dwells upon the use of the symbol of the “Motherland” in the legitimation and delegitimation of power. The Motherland symbolizes the matters that are essential for legitimacy-seeking: the unity of Russia, its territory and sacredness of its borders, the most important events of its history, the “authentic Russianness,” and multi-ethnic peace in the country. The author argues that the Motherland serves as an important factor of the legitimation of power in contemporary Russia, which allows the authorities to have high popularity both in domestic and foreign policies. This symbol is also actively exploited by the opposition; one mode of the delegitimation of power through using the symbol of Motherland (the “populist” mode) implies the symbolic struggle for possessing this symbol, or for the right to speak on behalf of the Motherland, while another one (the “liberal” mode) implies the desacralization of the “Motherland” and deconstruction of the practices of employing the symbol by the authorities.

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“…National anthems have been a topic for sociological and cultural analyses, including interpretations / commentaries on their nationalism, family, sexism, suicide rates and others -with cross-cultural implications in several cases (Abril, 2012;Barnes, Pomerantz, & Yashko, 2016;Boufoy-Bastick, 2012;Gilboa & Bodner, 2009;Guerrini & Kennedy, 2009;Kelen, 2014Kelen, , 2015Kyridis et al, 2009;Lauenstein, Murer, Boos, & Reicher, 2015;Lester & Gunn, 2011;Liao, Zhang, & Zhang, 2012;Oluga, Seng, & Rajoo, 2016;Rodríguez, 2016;Siska, 2016;Sondermann, 2013;Vörös et al, 2016;Winstone & Witherspoon, 2016). Most such studies were, however, focused on a distinct theme and/or on a culturallylimited number of anthems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topics in National Anthems

Silaghi‐Dumitrescu

2020

j.lang.lit.

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National anthems are occasionally quoted, mostly based on anecdotal evidence or arguments, to be correlated with societal features. The present study aims to identify the pervasive topics in national anthems, and then to establish whether connections may be established between these topics and some basic societal features. Upon examination of ~200 anthems, such recurring themes were identified: ancestry/past, beauty, build/work, country name, courage, democracy, enemy, ethnicity, family, man, woman, fight, flag/colours, forever/never, future, geographical references, glory, independence/freedom, joy/happiness, home/mother/father-land, law/governance, leader, love, loyalty, peace, poverty/wealth, pride, religion, revolution, sacred, sacrifice, salvation, sorrow, treason, tyrant/chains, unity, win/victory. The number of topics, as well as their bias (e.g., towards identity, or towards fight, or towards general well-being), vary widely between anthems; groups of anthems may be identified based on these tendencies. Moreover, the number of topics, their bias, and/or the date of adoption can be proven to correlate to some extent to more general societal features such as date of adoption, age of country, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, Gini coefficient, size of armed forces, inequality, inequality-adjusted human development index, and a number of parameters from the World Values Survey (WVS) database (related to religion, gender equality, attitude towards other nationalities/races, attitude towards work, attachment to democratic values etc). This set of data and the herein identified correlations may offer grounds for further, more detailed exploration of a variety of correlations between societal features and official narratives, starting with the national anthems as prime example.

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‘Oh motherland I pledge to thee …’: a study into nationalism, gender and the representation of an imagined family within national anthems

Cited by 43 publications

References 30 publications

Beliefs in national continuity are related to essentialist thinking and to perceptions of the nation as a family

Beliefs in national continuity are related to essentialist thinking and to perceptions of the nation as a family

The Symbol of the Motherland in the Legitimation and Delegitimation of Power in Contemporary Russia

Topics in National Anthems

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