Introduction
BEGINNINGS are a seductive necessity. The interest in beginnings
is not new-narratives of origins and genealogies frame much of the
recorded past. Yet, for the modern nation, the romance of origins and
the gravitas of a unique genealogy are imperative. For the modern state,
such stories offer the pride of modernity and of linear progress (the per-
petual -ing to the First World). For the citizens of these modern states,
these stories, illustrated in textbooks, contain values, morals, and na-
tional character. In America, for example, the Founding Fathers repre-
sent the beginnings of this nation in myriad and ever-present ways.
The statues of Alexander Hamilton or Thomas Jefferson in front of
academic or state buildings, in public parks, at crossroads, gesture at
specific origins of the state. These statues act as personifications of
static moments of origins-a teleology and an ethic. In Germany, Ar-
minius; in France, Charlemagne; in England, King Arthur; in India,
Asoka; and so on across the globe.^1 Some of these origins perform af-
fective tasks (the committee of men who gave birth to the United
States are ,neant to invoke in its citizens feelings of filial love), while
others help constitute an always renewable past (the rediscovery of
Genghis Khan as a hero for leaders in former Soviet states is meanf
to invoke a pre-communist past).
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