In a column in Le Monde, Marcel Detienne argues about notions of French national identity and the concept of autochton or native as meaning “born from the land itself”. National identity and the concept of being an autochton have been politically created and thought as the construction of the legacy of the dead of which, according to national mythology, people living on the territory of the European province of France would be the heirs. Such a process of identity creation and worship, which features an “ego hypertrophy” like in the recent history of the fifth century BC Athens, has been particularly vivid in Europe during the 19th century. The new founding of a ministry of national identity is there to display the revival of the Revelation and Truth of national identity to make people believe in the uniqueness of the sameness, in the “born from the same land” and in the “born from the land itself” myth.

Marcel Detienne is an anthropologist, a Hellenist, a honorary director of studies at the EPHE (Practical School of High Studies) and an emeritus professor at the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore. Amongst his last books are: Comparer l’incomparable (Seuil, 2009) ; Où est le mystère de l’identité nationale ? (Panama, 2008) ; Les Grecs et nous (Perrin, 2005).
He will be debating with Sylvie Laurent, professor of political and literary history of the African-Americans on the theme of “Mythologies, lights of our times?” at the ‘Théâtre des idées’ of the Avignon Festival on the 14th of July.

Full article here.