What is "ethnosymbolism"

Ethnosymbolism is a school of thought in the study of nationalism that stresses the importance of symbols, myths, values and traditions in the formation and persistence of the modern nation state.

It emerges as the critical theory of modernism, which argues the antiquity and la longue durée of nation while modernists believe nation's purely modern appearance. John A. Armstrong, Anthony D. Smith and John Hutchinson are regarded as important theorists of ethnosymbolism.

The term was first used as 'ethno-symbolist approach' in an article by Daniele Conversi, Smith's former student at LSE. However, Conversi was slightly critical, arguing that, 'if we focus exclusively on the power of the past and its symbols, we miss two other key features of nationalism: first, its relationship with political power, and particularly with the state; second, its crucial border-generating function'.