The conclusion explores the ways in which nationalism is both an object of inquiry in anthropology and a methodological challenge. More and more anthropological inquiry is hindered and sometimes made impossible by forms of policing that keep foreign anthropologists out. At the same time citizens who engage in anthropological inquiry are under pressure to avoid so-called sensitive topics. In India and China this has become a formidable obstacle for empirical research. Nevertheless, nationalism as the ideological expression of culture is one of the most important topics in social science research. The anthropological approach problematizes understandings of personhood in relation to...