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Social Studies 20-1

Social Studies 20-1 · Worksheets

Nation and identity

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Nation and identity. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Nation and identity

Social Studies 20-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Show your work in the space provided.

  1. Civil nationalism, as the term is used in this course, refers to

    1. a) nationalism promoted by the military
    2. b) a nationalism based on civil war
    3. c) a nation with no government
    4. d) loyalty to the institutions and shared civic life of a country

  2. The Kurdish people are frequently used as an example of

    1. a) a successful nation-state
    2. b) a supranational organization
    3. c) a nation without a state of its own
    4. d) a state without a nation

  3. Holding both a strong provincial identity and a strong Canadian identity at once shows that

    1. a) the person is not truly a citizen
    2. b) national identity is unimportant
    3. c) identities can be multiple and overlapping rather than exclusive
    4. d) one of the two identities must be false

  4. For many First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, relationship to the land is central to identity because

    1. a) land is tied to language, ceremony, kinship and history rather than being only property
    2. b) land is valuable economically
    3. c) land ownership is required for citizenship
    4. d) land was granted by treaty

  5. Ethnic nationalism differs from civic nationalism in that it

    1. a) defines the nation by shared ancestry or culture rather than by citizenship
    2. b) always leads to violence
    3. c) rejects the idea of a state
    4. d) requires a written constitution

  6. A nation is best described as

    1. a) a territory with defined borders and a government
    2. b) a group of people who share a sense of common identity
    3. c) any country that belongs to the United Nations
    4. d) the government of a country

  7. The strongest argument that national identity is socially constructed rather than natural is that

    1. a) national borders never change
    2. b) nations have existed for all of recorded history
    3. c) every nation has a unique language
    4. d) the same population can come to see itself as one nation or several depending on shared experience and how its history is told

  8. A state differs from a nation in that a state has

    1. a) a common ancestry
    2. b) no borders
    3. c) a single shared language
    4. d) defined territory, a permanent population and a government with sovereignty

  9. A nation-state is one in which

    1. a) the boundaries of the nation and the state closely coincide
    2. b) the state has no nation
    3. c) the nation has no territory
    4. d) several nations share one government

  10. Of these, the factor least likely to shape national identity is

    1. a) relationship to the land
    2. b) language
    3. c) an individual's height
    4. d) shared history

Answer key · Nation and identity

Social Studies 20-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. d) loyalty to the institutions and shared civic life of a country — It overlaps closely with civic nationalism and is sometimes used interchangeably with it. Both centre on shared institutions and participation rather than on ancestry.
  2. c) a nation without a state of its own — Kurds share language, culture and a sense of common identity but are divided among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. The case shows that national and state boundaries need not line up, and what follows when they do not.
  3. c) identities can be multiple and overlapping rather than exclusive — People routinely hold local, regional, national and supranational loyalties together. Nationalism becomes a problem mainly when it demands that one loyalty override all the others.
  4. a) land is tied to language, ceremony, kinship and history rather than being only property — Treating land as a commodity is one worldview among several. Understanding why displacement is experienced as an attack on identity itself depends on recognising that.
  5. a) defines the nation by shared ancestry or culture rather than by citizenship — The distinction is about who can belong. Ethnic nationalism can be peaceful and civic nationalism can be coercive, so the categories describe the basis of membership, not the level of harm.
  6. b) a group of people who share a sense of common identity — A nation is about shared identity — language, culture, history, land, or simply the belief that you belong together. A state is the political and territorial unit. The two words are used interchangeably in everyday speech and mean quite different things in this course.
  7. d) the same population can come to see itself as one nation or several depending on shared experience and how its history is told — Nations that feel ancient often turn out to be recent — built by schooling, print, conscription and shared myth. That does not make them unreal; it makes them made rather than given.
  8. d) defined territory, a permanent population and a government with sovereignty — Statehood is a legal and political fact: territory, population, government, sovereignty. Nationhood is a felt one. Some states contain many nations, and some nations are spread across several states.
  9. a) the boundaries of the nation and the state closely coincide — Iceland and Japan come close. Most states are not nation-states — Canada contains many nations, and the Kurdish nation is divided across several states.
  10. c) an individual's height — Language, history, culture, religion, relationship to land and shared experience all feed national identity. Individual physical traits do not, though ideologies that claim they do are exactly what Related Issue 2 examines.