[6] Drawing on the work of Fredrik Barth, Armstrong argues that "groups tend to define themselves not by reference to their own characteristics but by exclusion, that is, by comparison to 'strangers'".
[7] Armstrong contrasts this to modern nationalist thought, which "has sought permanent "essences" of national character instead of recognizing the fundamental but shifting significance of boundaries for human identity".
[11] Smith argues the "modern state cannot be understood without taking pre-existing ethnic components into account, the lack of which is likely to create a serious impediment to 'nation-building".
[17] In later works, Smith added a third type: immigrant nations that consist of the fragments of other ethnies, such as the United States and Australia.
Political nationalists are essentially cosmopolitan rationalists whose conception of nation "looks forward ultimately to a common humanity transcending cultural differences".
In contrast, cultural nationalists believe humanity is "infused with a creative force which endows all things with an individuality" similar to nature.
They regard the state as accidental, since for them a nation is essentially a distinctive civilisation, "the product of its unique history, culture and geographical profile".
[23] Breuilly is also skeptical of anachronistic readings of cultural materials from the past, explaining how nationalist intellectuals and politicians seize upon myths and symbols in order to promote a particular national identity.
[24] Furthermore, in contrast to the ethnosymbolist emphasis on early symbols, myths, values and traditions, Breuilly states there are many nationalist movements that have succeeded without having a rich ethnohistory to feed upon.
[25] Umut Özkirimli and Spyros Sofos criticize the unproblematic relationship between nations and ethnies posited by Smith, suggesting that ethnosymbolist thinking is marked by "retrospective ethnicization".
That is, scholars "ethnicize" a complex, contradictory and ambiguous past, packaging together disparate cultural and social traditions, often unrelated to each other, using the notion of ethnie.