Limitation, in turn, rested on the development of distinctive features, the very ones by which one group differentiates itself from other groups. ![]() Stated otherwise, the acquisition of a group identity is how one group separates itself and, in so doing, excludes other groups and the individuals belonging to these groups. The result of this exclusion is that an individual that does not belong to the group is perceived and categorized as a “stranger.” Exclusion is not a marginal act it is the act by which the group fosters cohesion, self-reliance, and the absolute compliance of members to its authority and norms. The result of all this is that the individual sees no possible life outside the group. Given this role of exclusion, the following problem arises: since modern societies required the dissolution of the original small groups and their integration into larger and larger social formations, what impulse, natural or otherwise, could explain this difficult and aberrant change? I say “natural or otherwise” because all views on the origin of human society, regardless of their divergence, face the same problem once they admit the indisputable fact that socialization kicked off with small and tightly closed groups. ![]() Let it be noted, however, that what is natural, biologically determined being ineradicable, it becomes arduous to find a convincing natural explanation for the expansion of closed groups into larger ensembles, all the more so as the expansion required the passing on of the power and magnetism inherent in the identity of the smaller groups to the larger, less harmonious, and diverse group, typical of a modern nation. On the other hand, it is no less difficult to assign the formation of the original small group to some agreement between pre-social individuals. This leads one to conclude that the formation of closed units through the total subordination of individuals to the norms of group identity cannot be explained without some biological support. The way out to account for the expansion of the small natural groups into larger aggregates is, then, to concede that the original social formations are an extension of the organizational activity that is characteristic of life, but that their expansion into modern nations was the result of human action and creativity. ![]() In this way, the contention between conflicting views is reduced to an issue of periodization instead of being a theoretical incompatibility. Also, in demarcating sequentially the realm of nature from human additions and accomplishments, we are in a better position to expound the nature of nationness, particularly in distinction to ethnicity. The sure clue indicating the causal intervention of human action and creativity is when the issue considered seems to involve the influence of human choice or will.
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