Cultural identity: what it is and how it helps us understand each other

The concept of cultural identity has allowed us to think about how we came to recognize ourselves as competent subjects of dynamics and relationships based on values, customs and traditions specific.

In this article we briefly explain what is cultural identity, and how this concept has been used to understand various psychological and social phenomena.

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What is cultural identity?

Studies on cultural identity date back to the eighteenth century, that is, to the beginnings of anthropology as a social science. They have followed a very diverse trajectory and have been modified according to the transformations in the definition of the concept of “identity” and also that of “culture”.

Among other things, studies on cultural identity have led us to ask if cultural identity impacts the individual psyche, or is it the opposite process? How is cultural identity related to local and global processes? Is cultural identity the same as, for example,

social identity, national identity or family identity?

Without the intention of answering these questions in detail, but to explain more precisely what the concept of "cultural identity", in this article we are going to define, on the one hand, the term "identity", and on the other, that of "culture".

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Theories about identity

Identity has been understood in very different ways within the social sciences. There are perspectives that, from the most traditional psychology, propose that identity is an individual fact, that it is fixed in a total, natural and fixed way, with particularities that are specific to each individual.

On the contrary, the most classic proposals of sociology speak of identity as the effect of a series of rules and guidelines that we limit ourselves to reproducing and putting into practice. On the other hand, the most contemporary proposals of the social sciences tell us that identity is not a fact, but a process, with which, there is no beginning and end that take place in certain life cycles.

It is rather a series of transformations that take place under different circumstances that are neither fixed nor immovable. Identity is, in this sense, understood as the effect of a series of social influences; but it is also understood as the result of the agency itself.

In other words, the most contemporary theories about identity distance themselves from psychology considering that it is a process mediated by the influences of the environment; and they also pose a distance with sociology by considering that people do not limit ourselves to reproduce these influences from the environment, but rather we interpret them, choose them, create projects with them, and so on.

Likewise, identity is thought of as the product of establishing a difference, either complementary or antagonistic. That is, the result of being recognized with characteristics common to a certain group, which are at the same time different from the characteristics of other individuals and groups. It is a difference that we establish for generate a certainty about what we individually and collectively are.

Culture: some definitions

The concept of culture has been understood and used in very different ways that can be traced back to the North American and European intellectual context of the 18th century. Originally, the concept of culture was closely related to civilization, referred to all those qualities that are recognized as necessary for a member to be considered competent in a society.

Culture is later understood as the set of tools, activities, attitudes and forms of organization that allow people to satisfy their needs. For example, from small tasks to social institutions and economic distribution. Already in the nineteenth century the culture begins to understand itself in relation to the intellect, as a series of ideas that are reflected in patterns of behavior that the members of a society acquire and share by instruction or by imitation. From then on, culture began to be understood in relation to the arts, religions, customs and values.

After the intellect, the concept of culture is also understood in a humanistic sense closely related to development individual, both intellectually and spiritually, which is reconciled with the activities and interests of a community in particular. In this same sense, and along with the development of science, culture is understood as a collective discourse, which is symbolic and which articulates values ​​with knowledge.

Finally, and given the obvious multiplicity of ways of understanding "culture", there is no other choice but to begin to think that there is not a single manifestation of it, which generates a new understanding of it concept. Culture is then understood from the diversity of worldviews and behaviors, including the lifestyles and attitudes that are part of different communities around the world.

In this context, the recognition of cultural diversity came up against some reminiscences of the old relationship between culture and civilization, with which some cultures were understood as superior and others as lower. Not only that, but culture was established in opposition to nature, and even as an obstacle to economic development, especially when it is taken to the field of territorial management.

In short, culture is understood in operative terms as the set of features that distinguish a social group (which they share with the group). These traits are understood as socially acquired and can be spiritual, material or affective. They can also be lifestyles, artistic expressions and forms of knowledge, values, beliefs and traditions.

We are part of a group and at the same time individuals

The traits that are considered typical of a culture because they are socially acquired, and because they serve as hallmarks of a group, are elements that give rise to an identity. That is, to a process of recognition of oneself before the interaction frameworks that belong to the social group to which we belong.

These are frameworks that offer us reference and identification schemes in accordance with the values ​​of the group itself; and that offer us certainty about the links and about our role in the community. In addition, cultural identity gives us a series of historical and physical references about our place in the social group.

For example, the possibilities of recognizing ourselves as women or men, or as people belonging to one class or another, may be different between different cultures. The same happens with the identity that corresponds to certain functions and institutions, such as students, teachers, friends, siblings, relatives, etc.

All these features shape different identity dimensions that coexist and make up the process through which we generate a perception and assessment of ourselves, our group, and others.