NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Cultural identity

Cultural identity is the (feeling of) identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as he is influenced by his belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics. Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences for an individuals comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. ... For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ... As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. ... Identity politics is the political activity of various social movements for self-determination. ...

1 Description
2 See also
3 External articles and references

Description

There are modern questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Various cultural studies and social theory investigate the question of cultural identity. In recent decades, a new form of identification and with pieces broken off from the individual as a coherent whole subject. Cultural identity remarks upon: place, gender, race, history, nationality, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and ethnicity. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Social theory refers to the use of abstract and often complex theoretical frameworks to explain and analyze social patterns and large-scale social structures. ... Gender in common usage refers to the sexual distinction between male and female. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individuals sexuality, normally conceived of as falling into several significant categories based around the sex or gender that the individual finds attractive. ... Religious belief refers to a faith or creed concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ...

Some critics of cultural identity argue that the preservation of cultural identity, being based upon difference, is a divisive force in society, and that cosmopolitanism gives individuals a greater sense of shared citizenship.^[1] That is not to say that cultural identity must always be divisive. When considering practical association in international society, states may share an inherent part of their 'make up' that gives common ground, and alternate means of identifying with each other. Examples can be taken from both old and contemporary world order. In the old world order European states shared a high level of cultural homogeneity, due to their common history of 'frequently violent relationships, and Greco-Roman cultural origins' Brown also argues that the Western invention of the nation-state has proven to be an appealing and homogenising factor to many cultures. ^[2] Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community. ... The term nation-state, while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to the parallel occurence of a state and a nation. ...

General: globalisation, Cosmopolitanism, Self-concept, Self-determination, liberalisation, demos
Identity: Social identity, identity concerns, multiple identity
Culture: Cultural diversity, Intercultural competence, cultural conservatism, Transculturation
Politics: Diaspora politics, Identity politics, Pan-nationalism, libertarian, conservationism

Globalization is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that are the result of dramatically increased trade and cultural exchange. ... Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community. ... A persons self image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, nature of external genitalia, I.Q. score, is this person double-jointed, etc. ... Self-determination is a principle in international law that a people ought to be able to determine their own governmental forms and structure free from outside influence. ... In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. ... In political science, the demos (Greek: people) is the common populace of a state. ... Social Identity Theory is a theory formed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination. ... Social Identity Complexity: Who is We? Given the recognition that individuals belong to multiple social groups, with multiple corresponding social identities, an important question to be addressed is how individuals combine these group identities when they define their subjective ingroup. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. ... Cultural conservatism is conservatism with respect to culture. ... Transculturation is a term coined by Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with identity politics. ... Identity politics is the political activity of various social movements for self-determination. ... Pan-nationalism is a form of nationalism distinguished by the large scale of the claimed national territory, and because it often defines the nation on the basis of a â€˜â€™clusterâ€™â€™ of cultures and ethnic groups. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... Conservation can be confused with conversation and vice versa. ...

External articles and references

Citations and notes

^ The Limits of Nationalism by Chaim Gans. ISBN 9780521004671 ISBN 0521004675
^ C Brown (2001) Understanding International Relations. Hampshire, Palgrave

Books and publication

Tan, S.-h. (2005). Challenging citizenship: group membership and cultural identity in a global age. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. ISBN 0754643670
Bunschoten, R., Binet, H., & Hoshino, T. (2001). Urban flotsam: stirring the city : Chora. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. ISBN 9064503877
Mandelbaum, M. (2000). The new European diasporas: national minorities and conflict in Eastern Europe. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press
Houtman, G. (1999). Mental culture in Burmese crisis politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. (library.cornell.edu). ISBN 4872977483
Sagasti, F. R., & Alcalde, G. (1999). Development cooperation in a fractured global order: an arduous transition. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre. ISBN 0889368899
Crahan, M. E., & Vourvoulias-Bush, A. (1997). The city and the world: New York's global future. New York: Council on Foreign relations. ISBN 0876092083
Hall, S., & Du Gay, P. (1996). Questions of cultural identity. London: Sage. ISBN 0803978839
Cable, V. (1994). The world's new fissures: identities in crisis. London: Demos. ISBN 1898309353
Berkson, I. B. (1920).Theories of Americanization a critical study, with special reference to the Jewish group. New York City: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Websites

Sounds Familiar?Visit this British Library website to listen to different accents and dialects across the UK as a form of cultural identity
Food Stories — Explore a century of revolutionary change in UK food culture on the British Library's Food Stories website

Categories: Anthropology | Cultural geography

Results from FactBites:

A Discursive-Semiotic Approach to Translating Cultural Aspects in Persuasive Advertisements (1873 words)
	The cultural identity of a specific group or society is an image referring to external as well as internal characteristics of that group.
	However, a culture must be located in time and space to "anchor" it in terms of its past, future and place and to indicate or compare changes that took place within that culture.
	Afrikaans and the Afrikaner culture were acts of defiance and against the British rulers, and created cultural unity; until 1948 it was the language of the oppressed, and not the oppressor as it was later held.

Cultural Identity (831 words)
	Students who want to change cultural identities generally also want to change their linguistic identification badge; such a shift before a critical level of first language competence has been achieved may result in 'semilingualism'[2] --full competence in no language.
	The minority culture first learned by many limited English speakers in the United States is comparable to the 'Low' (L) variety of a language as it is described by Ferguson, and the dominant American culture to the 'High' (H) variety of a national language.
	A major hazard in teaching a second culture is that students may reject parts of their native culture without knowing or accepting comparable parts of the second, or that they will find themselves repeatedly facing cultural interference as the rules or values of one conflict with the other in a single situation or domain.

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See also