The identification and valorization of distinct "peoples," "tribes," and "nations" are, of course, linked to celebrations of the "folk" that have emerged from nineteenth-century European romanticism, as well as to various projects of building and legitimating European nation-states, all of which undoubtedly predate the anthropological turn to "cultures" (which George Stocking Jr. [ 1982:202-3] traces to Franz Boas). But while the historical links between the idea of "a culture" and the hegemonic form of the nation-state are strong and important (as Roger Rouse [personal communication] has pointed out), the causal links and temporal sequences are complex and not easily summarized. A proper treatment of this issue would require a major digression into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century intellectual history, which we will not pursue in this brief introduction.