What does it mean to be a nation?

Nationality is something that is imparted to all of us as we grow. We learn it inherently through our parents, teachers, and other role models and media in our lives. Nationality and what it means to be part of a nation changes between all the nations of the world. According to the article, “ Benedict Anderson defined a nation as “an imagined political community that is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.”” I believe this to be at least mostly true. I am an American, but I believe that if I moved and spent the rest of my life in a European country, I may become accustomed to life there, but I will always be American. It is the nation I was born into, and the nation that I will always hold in my heart at least in part. Someone who has a more nomadic existence however and has never lived long in one country may not feel the same national pride that others get to experience, but perhaps will eventually find a nation to call their own. The article also says, “These communities are imagined as both limited and sovereign. They are limited in that nations have “finite, if elastic boundaries, beyond which lie other nations.”” I think that the “elastic boundaries” of a nation express this perfectly. The boundaries of a nation lie within the people, not in a physical outlining of land. Though I do believe that the location of a prescribed nation can affect the values of that particular nation due to many different factors. Some of these would be based on neighboring nations, natural resources, or climate. Natural resources and climate would directly effect the way the society of a nation functions, and they may value certain survival techniques or crops more than other nations due to rarity and survival instincts, but the neighboring nations may be one of the biggest factors. Neighboring nations could effect other nations by making the more warlike due to constant battles and infighting, or conquering nations could try to completely change their values over night, but they could also affect it in more subtle ways, by cross culturing their foods and religions, and intermingling of people. Those born with strong national parentage on both sides could be caught in a struggle between two nations and belonging to none. However, some could argue that this is an issue of ethnicity, not nationality, but I believe that if both parents have very strong ties to their own nationality, their attempts to impart these values to the child could end with the child never truly belonging to either. A nation can be full of many different types of cultures, and it is those types of cultures that are mostly what comprise the nation, there is the factor of “comradeship” but I believe it is due in large part to the cultures of a nation. These are what bond people together and give them that form of “communication” that is stressed in the article. It is through these cultures that each specific nation is defined, and though they may share similarities to other nations, it is what makes each unique to the world.