Cultural Identity

Almost all human beings live in groups.What identifies one as a member of a group may be a physical characteristic such as skin color or gender, or the criteria may consist of shared attitudes, rituals, language, religion, and values. These are all elements of culture, and a group membership derived from these elements is said to be one’s cultural identity. Unlike physical qualities, cultural identity is an acquired identity, and a child born in one culture but raised in a separate culture will have the identity of the latter. This is because he or she has gone through acculturation in the process of acquiring the cultural identity he or she claims, and all other members of the culture have also experienced the same training, so to speak. That is, the individual has acquired a command of the group’s common language or dialect, and typically speaks it as a first language. He or she also follows the religious perspective that members of the group support. But knowledge of the language and shared faith are seldom sufficient to qualify one as sharing a cultural identity, because languages

can be learned, sometimes to a level of native fluency, by outsiders, and many religions allow for conversion from other faiths. Shared values, customs, attitudes, and mores are also imprinted on each member, further solidifying the identity.

In some cases outsiders may join the group, but such a newcomer must indicate that he or she has absorbed all of the characteristics necessary to qualify as possessing the cultural identity of the larger collective. In reality, cultural identity operates at multiple levels, and rarely does an individual identify exclusively with only one group. A certain resident of Miami, Florida, may be on one level Cuban, on another Floridian, on another Hispanic, on another American, and on yet another level, Roman Catholic. All of these are cultural groups, some admittedly overlapping, that such an individual feels loyalty to and identifies with. That is, she believes that she “belongs” to each of these collectives, and that each group in turn represents a component of her individual cultural identity. But this is not to suggest that cultural identity may be clearly marked off by definite boundaries, or that such identity is static. Cultural identity is a fluid concept, the building blocks of identity evolve over time, and new identities emerge. Furthermore, there is often a strong geographical basis to cultural identity, typically expressed through territoriality. A specific piece of land can itself come to play a central role in cultural identity. This may be due to an historical event that occurred in that place, or may appear because of a special significance assigned by the cultural group to a location.