Culture and Identity

Reading:
Fouberg et al, Chapter 5, pp. 149-162

Sources used:

Anderson, Benedict (1991). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

Balibar, Rene & Laporte, Dominique (1974). Le franais national: Politique et pratique de la langue nationale sous la Rvolution. Paris: Hachette.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1980). L'identit et la reprsentation. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 35, 6370.
de Certeau, Michel; Julia, Dominique; & Revel, Jacques (1975). Une politique de la langue: La Rvolution franaise et les patois. Paris: Gallimard.
Fishman, Joshua A. (1973). Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Gellner, Ernest (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Gordon, David C. (1978). The French Language and National Identity (1930-1975). The Hague: Mouton.
Robyns, Clem (1994). Translation and discursive identity. In Clem Robyns (Ed.), Translation and the Reproduction of Culture. Leuven: Cetra. Also in Poetics Today 15 (3), 405428.
Robyns, Clem (1995). Defending the national identity. In Andreas Poltermann (Ed.), Literaturkanon, Medienereignis, Kultureller Text. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.
Woolf, Stuart. Europe and the Nation-State. EUI Working Papers in History 91/11. Florence: European University Institute.
Wikipedia encyclopedia

Identities:
intersecting,
overlapping

Identity
components
contribute to an
overall identity

Cultural Identity
Definition

Cultural identity is the (feeling of) belonging

to a group or culture. *Know this

Picture of pelicans going right

Photo: Arthus-Bertrand, Pelicans

An exclusively human idea??

Cultural Identity
Definition identity of an individual,
influenced by belonging to a group or culture.

Text

Photo: Arthus-Bertrand: Ivory Coast

Cultural Identity
The bits and pieces

'Markers' of an identity
Individual

The markers are the components that make up your

specific identity

Cultural Identity
Common habits, characteristics, and ideas may be
clear markers of a shared cultural identity, but it is
also determined by difference:

We feel we belong to a group, and a group defines

itself by noticing and highlighting differences with
other groups and cultures.

HABITS - they make up a component of our identity

IDEAS - come and go, fluid, but important
Job, religions, etc. - these are markers!
They make clear to us the difference between our markers
and someone elses (in a different culture/group, for ex.)
You notice your markers and those of others, when youre in a
a group thats not completely your own.
Ritual bathing in the Ganges, Uttar Pradesh, India
Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Constructing Cultural Identity

People who feel they belong to the same culture
rely on a common set of norms,
But the awareness of such common codes is possible
only by confrontation with their absence, namely,
confrontation with other cultures.
STRIVING has an influence on our identity (going to uni)
- commercial, capitalist, legal, etc. endeavour
Norm - like a habit, but is a set of people (when many people
have the SAME habit)
Habits - indivual

Washing laundry, as set of norms, in Ivory Coast. Photo: Arthus-Bertrand

Constructing Cultural Identity

In other words: if you think you're the only existing culture
(e.g. living on an island in the ocean) do you see yourself as a
culture?

Photo: Arthus-Bertrand, Maldives

Constructing Cultural Identity

Thus cultural self-definition implies a
continuous contact between cultures.

Fortified city of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan state, India

Founded in 1156, used in confrontations between the
Bhattis and Muslims
Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Constructing Cultural Identity

Such contact are not relations of equality, since

they never exist in an isolated form.

Equality in
technology?

Telecommunications, Bavaria, Germany

Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Village in Nara, Mali Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Constructing Cultural Identity

The complex web of relationships created

by the interaction of:

political,
economic,
scientific,
and cultural relations

. . . .turns any relation between two

cultures into what can seem to be an

unequal one.

Constructing Cultural Identity

For example, there is frequently a dominant
cultural practice:
(culture A may be dominant in architecture, and B in technology).
Church in Karelia, Russia

Photo: Arthus-Bertrand

Power station, Denmark Photo: Arthus-Bertrand

Constructing Cultural Identity

Within a culture or
cultural practice, there
is an awareness of a
common identity.
This means that:

Constructing
monuments are
part of this
striving

there has also been a

striving toward
preservation of this
identity,
toward selfpreservation of the
culture.

Monument to Portuguese
Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal
Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Sports, can also be part of this striving

Constructing Cultural Identity

The shared conventions

on which identity is based,
are often assumed and
unnoticed.
The basic rules and
meanings underlying the
production of identity are
taken for granted by
participants.
This structured set of rules
& meanings are what we
call doxa.
Niger river, Mali
Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Such as clothing,
behavior, position
in society
Highly contexted:
You assume a lot
Low contexted:
You assume a little

Responses of cultural identity to the other

Every culture is continually forced to
determine its position(s) toward other
cultural elements, in order to preserve or
redefine its identity.

Nomad camp, Chad Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Nomadic pastoralism
is one of the most
heavily influenced
cultures by outside
elements.

One approach to examining this

difference...
Is to look at responses to cultural elements.
In one framework, there are four basic
reactions to other (outside) cultural elements.

Imperialist
Trans-cultural
Defensive
Defective

Some markers are visible

- dress
- food
- language
Invisible:
- ethics
etc.

Responses of cultural identity to the other

1. A reaction in which otherness is denied and

transformed may be called imperialist,
If another culture group is seen
as denying its uniqueness, its called
IMPERIALIST

Housing complex,
Mexico
Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Responses of cultural identity to the other

2. A reaction in which otherness is acknowledged but

still transformed may be called defensive.

Responses of cultural identity to the other

3. A trans-cultural reaction neither radically opposes

itself to other cultures (or cultural features) nor refuses
their intrusion,

Farsi,
English,
Chinese food.

Responses of cultural identity to the other

4. A culture which stimulates the intrusion of outside

elements that are explicitly acknowledged, may be
termed defective. (This does NOT imply that any culture is
defective, the term is meant to be specific according to this
argument about the identity process),

Modern Hotel development, Canary Islands, Africa Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

Responses of cultural identity to the other

Clearly these types of reactions

are very large generalizations.
No culture will ever correspond
exactly to a single type of
reaction, all the time.

Responses of cultural identity to the other

Cultural 'intrusions' are normally partial:

only a limited number of codes will be brought
in.
Nor will any culture ever reflect only one type
of reaction (imperialist, defensive, transcultural, defective).
Change occurs:
Over time
Over different:
sub-segments of
a culture group.

The Imperialist Approach

An imperialist approach toward the cultural
other is characterized by a contradictory claim
of:
On the one hand, the uniqueness of one's own identity,
And on the other hand, the universality of its values.

The imperialist approach

Several basic strategies can be used, two of these
are:

To deny the other the status of a valid culture: only

our culture is universal.
Or, to reduce the other to an exotic curiosity.

In matters of foreign policy, these approaches

naturally lead to
assuming the role of
cultural guide
for the other.
Reduced to an exotic curiosity?

Local
sailing vessel,
Phillippines
Photo: Arthus-Bertrand,

The Defensive Approach

Generally, intrusions can provoke defensive
reactions,
A sense of threat to one's own identity, of
alienation, can be expressed,
A culture characterized by a defensive posture
enhances its uniqueness by heavily emphasizing
the otherness of the alien culture.

The Defensive Approach

Defensive reactions:
The threatening intrusion of the outside
culture can be characterized as an invasion.
This invasive colonization is then seen as a
reason for a weakening of the threatened
culture.

The Trans-cultural Approach

Without completely losing
sight of its uniqueness, a
cultural practice can define
itself as a part of a larger
cultural domain.
The trans-cultural approach
does not consider imported
elements as being:
other,
alien,
or threatening.

The trans-cultural approach

In the trans-cultural approach: both

foreign and local cultural elements,
are seen as equal contributions to a common
goal.

This attitude can be a reaction against

what is seen as

provincialism.

The Defective approach

A cultural practice may acknowledge that it
lacks the necessary components for renewing
itself, or for adapting to a changing social
context.
It will then take a defective position, turning to
other cultures
and importing
cultural elements
from them.

The defective approach

Since this importing is seen as an
enrichment of the target culture, these
cultural elements will generally be explicitly
introduced as from the outside.
Defective in this sense is not a value
judgment, but an indication of a process.

Review: two levels of identity

Individual and Collective Identities

Individual identity is constituted through:
The self, derived through concepts and practices made
available by 'markers':
family, school, occupation,
society, religion,
the state, etc.
..taking place over time
These influences have historical, as well as current,
dimensions.

Two levels of identity

Collective identities provide scripts

(narratives) people can use in shaping:
themselves & their groups,
their lives,
their stories.

These stories change--as societies and

cultures change.
Such scripts usually change slowly.

Another Framework
of looking at culture & identity

Circuit of Culture,
the five interacting loci
of cultural practices

"circuit of culture" from Culture, Media, Identities Series

Circuit of culture

Identity:
Derived from a multiplicity of sources:
nationality,
ethnicity,
social class,
community,
gender.

Circuit of culture

Identity:
Sources may conflict in
the construction of
identity positions
and lead to
contradictory,
fragmented identities.

Identity gives us a
location in the world
and presents the link
between us and the
society in which we
live.

Circuit of culture

Production:
Production of meaning
at different times:
material production,
symbolic production,
(meaning produced in the national flag, or
foods, or clothing).

Circuit of culture

Consumption:
'Consumption'
meaning different
components of culture
are taken up & used,
appreciated & hence
supported & encouraged
to continue.
material consumption (technology),
symbolic consumption (fashion).

Circuit of culture

Regulation:
Government policies
and regulations;
The reproduction of a
particular pattern and
order of practices (so that things appear to
be 'regular' or 'natural').

Circuit of culture
Regulation:
Cultural policy as well
as cultural politics,
involving struggles over

meanings,
values,
forms of subjectivity
and identity.

A dynamic process that

is often contested'

Circuit of culture
Representation:
'the production and circulation of meaning through
language';
language as a
system of
representation, as a
signifying practice
and as discourse;

Still a different framework