The Illusion of Cultural Identity

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Part I. The Beaujolais Nouveau Is Here!
1. The Interweaving of Traditions: Globalisation and Cultural Closure
Three dreams of identity
The invention of tradition as the invention of modernity
Culturalism as an ideology of globalisation
Christianity and globalisation in Africa
2. Should we stop using the word 'Culture'?
Heritage or production?
Cultural extraversion and the transfer of meaning
The fabrication of authenticity
The formation of primordial identities
Tableaux of thought or tables of the law?
Political utterance
Part II. Owls With Rheumy Eyes
3. The Imaginary Polis
The irreducibility of political imaginaries
The imaginaire, a principle of ambivalence
4. The Materialisation of the Political Imaginaire
The political symbolism of hair
In the political oven: the culinary polis
The political symbolism of clothing
The imaginaire, a principle of incompleteness
Conclusion: the Paradoxical Invention of Modernity
Notes
Index