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Abstract: This article examines the process of European integration from a cultural perspective. Taking up questions posed by social scientists and European Community (EC) officials concerning the possibility of transcending nation‐state and nationalism in Europe, it explores the European Commission's attempts to do this, particularly through the EC's campaigns and initiatives for forging a sense of European identity and culture at the level of popular consciousness. Following Hobsbawn and Ranger, I argue that the history of EC cultural politics provides an interesting case study of invented traditions and manufactured heritage. The political implications and problems of using culture as a vehicle for nation‐building at a pan‐European level are analysed. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of the concept of European identity and questions whether the EC's project for constructing a post‐nationalist political order in Europe is feasible or politically desirable.

The anthropological study of elites has gained increasing prominence with the shift of the anthropological gaze toward issues of power, prestige and status in the societies of anthropologists themselves. However, our understanding of elites is often partial, obscured as it is by the theoretical weaknesses of Western models on the one hand and, on the other, by the difficulties in studying elites from the 'inside'. Drawing on a diverse, comparative ethnographic literature, this new volume examines the intimate spaces and cultural practices of those elites who occupy positions of power and authority across a variety of different settings. Using ethnographic case studies from a wide range of geographical areas, including Mexico, Peru, Amazonia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Europe, North America and Africa, the contributors explore the inner worlds of meaning and practice that define and sustain elite identities. They also provide insights into the cultural mechanisms that maintain elite status, and into the complex ways that elite groups relate to, and are embedded within, wider social and historical processes.; The book addresses a number of fundamental questions about the nature of elites and society such as; *How do elites in different societies maintain their position of domination? *How do elites reproduce themselves over time? *How do elites represent themselves? *How can we study elites anthropologically? *What implications does this study have for the discipline of anthropology? In exemplifying anthropology's contribution to the study of power, this book provides a welcome and timely addition to the literature as well as to current debates about the scope and direction of the discipline itself. Professor John Eade, University of Surrey, UK; Dr Sandra Evers Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands; Dr