This paper explores a paradoxical situation of modern Romanian nationalism that is a symptom and a consequence of the country's postcommunist “liquid” modernity: the tension between the essentialist and the constructionist discourses linked to ethnic identity and nationalism. Approaching this topic can be an important aspiration for a better comprehension of the condition of a very liminal geography in Europe's late modernity (East/West, democracy/totalitarianism, tradition/modernity) and for handling two questions of main importance to political anthropology: (1) Which are the political consequences of subjecting a certain community to the scientific discourse created in the sphere of the social sciences about that very community? (2) How is it possible for modern national identity to be commodified and for citizenship to be contractualized?