Po-Mo Med

Abstract

The Mediterranean region, with its long history of religious conflict and its more recent history of aggressive nation-building, today presents a post-modern sensibility defined by a strong emphasis on the preservation of national heritage in individual nation-states. Despite notable differences among the various kinds of heritage in question, as well as the respective cultural specificities of the countries of the region, the overarching, externally-derived model of cultural self-reification creates a misleading image of pre-modern Mediterranean homogeneity. This image often locks Mediterranean countries—albeit in varying degrees and modalities—into a geopolitically disadvantageous traditio..