| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Bavarian Crucifixes and French HeadscarvesReligious Signs and the Postmodern European StateUniversity of Chicago This article argues that two very different controversies of the 1990s—one over Islamic headscarves in the French schools, the other over Catholic crucifixes in Bavarian classrooms—are both symptoms of crises of national identity and sovereignty in contemporary European nation states. These crises have been provoked both by the globalization of economies and commodity culture as well as the challenge to national political autonomy in the context of the European Union. People who perceive themselves to represent both majority and minority cultures have responded to these crises by constructions and assertions of identities (religious and otherwise) and boundaries (between us and them).
Key Words: crucifixes European Union headscarves identity Islam modern state the West
Cultural Dynamics, Vol. 12, No. 3,
283-309 (2000) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|||||||||||||||
