Els objectes naturals i la identitat nacional. Les muntanyes a Catalunya i al Quebec

There is a close relationship between nationalist claims and the expression of social reverence for mountains by those nations without state which have not been able to consolidate formally their borders or national institutions. Mountains have served as spiritual refuge and as a symbolic metaphor to represent the identity and the collective meanings of those nations without state, while at the same time, claims for conservation, have very often made use of nationalist discourses. This is the case of Montserrat, a mountain range which symbolises the Catalan nation and in which the first plan for the creation of a national park at a state level was written, although it did not succeed. In Quebec a similar phenomena can be observed with the Les Laurentides. We use a comparative approach and the interpretative framework of Bruno Latour to understand this peculiar process of hybridisation between nature and nation.