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Cultural identity is the identity
Identity (social science)

Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity....
 of a group or culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
, or of an individual
Individual

As vernacular, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." ....
 as far as he or she is influenced by her belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics
Identity politics

Identity politics is political action to advance the interests of members of a group whose members perceive themselves to be oppressed by virtue of a shared and marginalized identity ....
.
e are modern questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Various cultural studies
Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, Media influence, film theory, cultural anthropology, philosophy, museum studies and art history/art criticism to study culture phenomena in various societies....
 and social theory
Social theory

Social theory is the use of theoretical frameworks to study and interpret social structures and phenomena within a particular school of thought....
 investigate the question of cultural identity.






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Cultural identity is the identity
Identity (social science)

Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity....
 of a group or culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
, or of an individual
Individual

As vernacular, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." ....
 as far as he or she is influenced by her belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics
Identity politics

Identity politics is political action to advance the interests of members of a group whose members perceive themselves to be oppressed by virtue of a shared and marginalized identity ....
.

Description

There are modern questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Various cultural studies
Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, Media influence, film theory, cultural anthropology, philosophy, museum studies and art history/art criticism to study culture phenomena in various societies....
 and social theory
Social theory

Social theory is the use of theoretical frameworks to study and interpret social structures and phenomena within a particular school of thought....
 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
Gender

Gender comprises a range of differences between man and woman, extending from the biological to the social. Biologically, the male gender is defined by the presence of a Y-chromosome, and its absence in the female gender....
, race, history, nationality
Nationality

Nationality is a the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state....
, sexual orientation
Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation refers to "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes." According to the American Psychological Association, "it also refers to an individual?s sense of personal and social identity based on those attractions, behaviors expressing them, and membership in a community of...
, religious belief
Religious belief

Religious belief refers to a mental state in which faith is placed in a creed related to the supernatural, sacred, or divinity. Such a state may relate to:...
s and ethnicity.

Culture, as a social practice, is not something that individuals possess. Rather, it is a social process in which individuals participate, in the context of changing historical conditions. As an "historical reservoir", culture is an important factor in shaping identity 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
Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of human race belongs to a single community, possibly based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with Communitarianism theories, in particular the ideologies of patriotism and nationalism....
 gives individuals a greater sense of shared citizenship.. That is not to 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 2001). Brown also argues that the Western invention of the nation-state
Nation-state

The nation-state is a certain form of state that derives its legitimacy from serving as a Sovereignty entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit....
 has proven to be an appealing and homogenising factor to many cultures..

See also

General: globalization
Globalization

Globalization in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together....
, Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of human race belongs to a single community, possibly based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with Communitarianism theories, in particular the ideologies of patriotism and nationalism....
, Self-concept
Self-concept

Self-concept or self identity refers to the global understanding a Sentience being has of him or herself. It presupposes but can be distinguished from self-consciousness, which is simply an awareness of one's self....
, Self-determination
Self-determination

Self-determination is defined as free choice of one?s own acts without external compulsion, and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status or independence from their current state....
, liberalization
Liberalization

In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. Liberalization of autocratic regimes may precede democratization ....
, demos
Demos

Demos may refer to:* Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms#Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...
 Identity: Social identity
Social identity

Social identity is a theory formed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination. It is composed of four elements:...
, Mistaken identity
Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity may refer to:* Mistaken identity, a claim of the actual innocence of a criminal defendantIn music*Mistaken Identity , a 1981 album released by Kim Carnes...
, multiple identity, Gender identity
Gender identity

Gender identity is a person's own sense of identification as male or female. The term is intended to distinguish this Psychology association, from Physiology and Sociology aspects of gender....
 Culture: Cultural diversity
Cultural diversity

Cultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. There is a general consensus among mainstream anthropologists that humans first emerged in Africa about two million years ago ....
, Intercultural competence
Intercultural competence

Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures.A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting....
, cultural conservatism
Cultural conservatism

Cultural conservatism is conservatism with respect to culture. This term is increasingly used in political debate, but is rather ill-defined. It is often confused with social conservatism, which is a school of thought that may overlap to a degree as far as its adherents but is nonetheless a quite distinct subset of the former....
, Transculturation
Transculturation

Transculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures....
 Politics: Diaspora politics
Diaspora politics

Diaspora politics is the study of the Theories of political behavior of transnational ethnic groups diasporas, their relationship with their ethnic homelands and their host states, as well as their prominent role in ethnic conflicts....
, Identity politics
Identity politics

Identity politics is political action to advance the interests of members of a group whose members perceive themselves to be oppressed by virtue of a shared and marginalized identity ....
, Pan-nationalism
Pan-nationalism

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 ??cluster?? of cultures and ethnic groups....
, libertarian, conservationism

Footnotes


Further reading


  • Stewart, Edward C.; Bennet, Milton J. (1991). American Cultural Patterns. Intercultural Press, Boston, MA.
  • Evangelista, M. (2003). "Culture, Identity, and Conflict: The Influence of Gender," in Conflict and Reconstruction in Multiethnic Societies, Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press


External links

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