Premium
Performing the nation in anti‐colonial protest in interwar M orocco
Author(s) -
Wyrtzen Jonathan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/nana.12037
Subject(s) - nationalism , national identity , colonialism , sociology , salience (neuroscience) , elite , context (archaeology) , religious identity , identity (music) , gender studies , political science , political economy , law , politics , history , aesthetics , philosophy , religiosity , psychology , archaeology , cognitive psychology
Abstract This article applies a process approach to the study of nationalism, analysing anti‐colonial protest in interwar M orocco to address how and why elite‐constructed national identity resonates for larger audiences. Using A lexander's social performance model to study nationalist contention, it examines how a M uslim prayer ritual was re‐purposed by M oroccan nationalists to galvanise mass protest against a F rench divide‐and‐rule colonial policy towards M oroccan B erbers that they believed threatened M orocco's ethno‐religious national unity. By looking at how national identity was forged in the context of contentious performances and why certain religious ( I slam) and ethnic ( A rab) components were drawn on to define the M oroccan nation, this study offers a model for answering why national identity gets defined in specific ways and how the nation gains salience for broader publics as a category of collective identity.