Theorizing Cultural Identities: Historical Institutionalism as a Challenge to the Culturalists

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Lecours
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Will Kymlicka ◽  
Multiethnic States ◽  
Inherent Strength ◽  
The Way

The interest of philosophers in the politics of cultural identity was one of the most interesting developments in this field in the 1990s. Their involvement in an area dominated by historians, sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists2 has been particularly evident in Canada where scholars such as Will Kymlicka and Charles Taylor have shaped the way many academics understand cultural identity politics. These theorists have favoured a cultural approach to the phenomenon. They have established frameworks for understanding and managing multiethnic states that stress the inherent strength and meaning of culture.

scholarly journals Representations of suppressed indigenous cultural memories: the communities of Sami of Finland and Kurdish of Turkey

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-175
Author(s):  
Adél Furu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Traditional Songs ◽  
State Interventions

In my paper I intend to examine how the historical marginalization of Sami and Kurdish history and culture affects the cultural identity of these ethnic groups. I discuss how recent political discourses and state interventions have influenced the images of the past and identity politics in the Sami communities living in Finland and in the Kurdish society living in Turkey. Furthermore, I describe how these assimilated minorities have alienated from their own identity due to a damage of their collective memory caused by devastating historical events. The paper also focuses on the ways these two minorities give meaning to the past and strengthen their cultural identities through different forms of art. Both Samis and Kurds express their identities in several creative ways. Their historical realities, individual histories, memories of assimilation and common values are reflected in joiks, folk music and cinema. These are strong ways of remembering and expressions of identity in both cultures. Traditional songs, films, documentaries reveal histories, reproduce cultures and shape the memories of both Sami and Kurdish people. Therefore, I will discuss how the patterns of their cultural memory have an impact on the representation of their identities in the above art forms.

scholarly journals POLÍTICAS DE IDENTIDADE: POSIÇÕES ANTROPOLÓGICAS DIANTE DOS DIREITOS QUILOMBOLAS E DAS COTAS RACIAIS / IDENTITY POLITICS: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON QUILOMBOLAS’ RIGHTS AND RACIAL QUOTAS

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (50) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hofbauer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Brazilian Society ◽  
The Way

Propostas para implementar políticas focadas que pretendem combater os efeitos da discriminação racial no Brasil têm provocado muita polêmica na sociedade brasileira. Neste debate, os posicionamentos e as contribuições de antropólogos brasileiros, tanto para a defesa quanto para o questionamento destas políticas de identidade, ganharam destaque. Este artigo propõe-se a analisá-las ao exemplo de dois casos emblemáticos: o dos direitos, garantidos pela Constituição, aos remanescentes de comunidades dos quilombos e o da implementação de cotas raciais em universidades públicas. Especial atenção é dada à maneira como conceitos paradigmáticos do pensamento antropológico – raça, cultura, identidade (etnicidade) – são acionados nas respectivas linhas de argumentação. ABSTRACTProposals to implement targeted policies aimed at combatting the effects of racial discrimination in Brazil have provoked great controversy in Brazilian society. In this debate, perspectives and contributions of Brazilian anthropologists, both in defense and questioning these identity politics, have been widely commented upon. This article proposes to analyze these policies using examples of two representative cases: the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to the remnants of maroon communities (quilombos) and the implementation of racial quotas in public universities. Special attention was given to the way in which paradigmatic concepts in anthropological thought – race, cultural, identity (ethnicity) – are mobilized in these respective lines of argument.

Poems on Māori identity: From multimodal interaction analysis to poetry

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tui Matelau
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Interaction ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Way

AbstractResearch into Māori identity has revealed cultural identities that neglect to include a large number of Māori (McIntosh, 2005; Moeke-Maxwell, 2005; Meijl, 2006; Houkamau, 2010). Fluid Māori identity is an emerging cultural identity and is encouraging but there continues to be a gap in the research into an inclusive Māori identity (Borell, 2005; McIntosh, 2005; Moeke-Maxwell, 2005). I conducted a small scale qualitative study. Through ethnographic observations of two Māori female participants and semi-structured socio linguistic interviews, I explored the participants’ Māori identities and analysed my findings using multimodal interaction analysis. These findings revealed that the participants enacted two distinctive Māori identities. I also found that numerous networks and institutions contribute to the layers of discourse that enforce the Māori identities. At this point in the research I used poetry to enhance my analysis of the data as poetry can be used “to convey our experiences of other people and - even more audaciously - to explain why human beings think and act the way we do,” (Maynard & Cahnmann-Taylor, 2010, p.14). I wrote two poems; each poem representing one participant. Writing these poems helped me to move from describing the findings of the research to analysing the findings.

scholarly journals Imagining ‘non-nationality’: Cosmopolitanism as a source of identity and belonging

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Skovgaard-Smith ◽  
Flemming Poulfelt
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Cultural Features

Current literature tends to see cosmopolitan identity formation as an individual endeavour of developing a stance of openness, and transcending discourses of national and other cultural identities. This article challenges the essentialism inherent in this model by proposing a different framing of cosmopolitan identity formation that shifts the focus to how people collectively mobilize cosmopolitanism as a resource for cultural identity construction. The article is based on an anthropological study of transnational professionals who are part of a diverse expatriate community in Amsterdam. The analysis shows how these professionals draw on cosmopolitanism to define themselves as ‘non-nationals’. This involves downplaying national affiliations and cultural differences while also marking national identity categories and ‘cultural features’ to maintain the difference they collectively embrace. This, however, does not imply openness to all otherness. Boundary drawing to demarcate the cosmopolitan ‘us’ in relation to national (mono)culture is equally important. The article argues that cosmopolitan identities are socially accomplished as particular modes of collective belonging that are part of – not beyond – a global discursive sphere of identity politics.

scholarly journals Refleksi Pemikiran Multikulturalisme bagi Dakwah

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61
Author(s):  
Ellyda Retpitasari ◽  
Luluk Fikri Zuhriyah
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Structural Approach ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Politics Of Recognition ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Politics Of Difference ◽  
The City

This paper aims to discuss multiculturalism thinking from Europe and Asia, such as Bikhu Parekh, Daniel Conjanu, and Charles Taylor. Multiculturalism thinking is explored for the sake of Da'wa, or it can be called as multiculturalism preaching. This study uses literature review, and analysis of multiculturalism phenomena in the city of Surabaya. These thinkers used a number of approaches in terms of recognition politics, new identity politics, political equality with dignity, politics of difference, accommodative multiculturalism, and pragmatism. In the analysis of the Da'wa approach is divided into two, namely the structural approach and cultural approach. The structural approach refers to politics that encompasses politics of recognition, politics of new identity, politics of equality with dignity, and politics of difference. As for the cultural approach, it encompasses accommodative multiculturalism and pragmatism. Through this multicultural preaching approach it becomes an offer in overcoming the problems of preaching in multicultural societies.

Tiki Taane’s With Strings Attached: Alive & Orchestrated and postcolonial identity politics in New Zealand

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oli Wilson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Performance Practice ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Performance Group ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Colonial Experience ◽  
Television Documentary

This chapter explores how the New Zealand popular music artist Tiki Taane subverts dominant representational practices concerning New Zealand cultural identity by juxtaposing musical ensembles, one a ‘colonial’ orchestra, the other a distinctively Māori (indigenous New Zealand) kapa haka performance group, in his With Strings Attached: Alive & Orchestrated album and television documentary, released in 2014. Through this collaboration, Tiki reframes the colonial experience as an amalgam of reappropriated cultural signifiers that enraptures those that identify with colonization and colonizing experiences, and in doing so, expresses a form of authorial agency. The context of Tiki’s subversive approach is contextualized by examining postcolonial representational practices surrounding Māori culture and orchestral hybrids in the western art music tradition, and through a discussion about the ways the performance practice called kapa haka is represented through existing scholarly studies of Māori music.

Semiotics of Clothes in Postcolonial Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-215
Author(s):  
Somaye Sharify ◽  
Nasser Maleki
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Female Immigrant ◽  
Cultural Displacement ◽  
Romance Fiction ◽  
Dress Codes ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe present study intends to examine the link between clothes and cultural identities in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Hema and Kaushik” (2008). It will argue that Lahiri explores her protagonists’ cultural displacement through their items of clothing. We want to suggest that the protagonists’ clothes are employed in each narrative as signifiers for the characters’ cultural identities. The study will further show that each item of clothing could be loaded with the ideological signification of two separate cultures. In other words, it aims to demonstrate how ideology imposes its values, beliefs, and consequently its dominance through the dress codes each defines for its subjects. Moreover, it intends to suggest that the link between clothing and identity is most visible and intense in the case of female immigrant characters rather than men. Drawing on Luptan’s structure of the Cinderella line, we will explore Lahiri’s protagonists’ cultural transformation from simple ethnic girls to stylish American ladies through their items of clothing. The study will conclude that the “Cinderella line” does not work in Lahiri’s realistic stories the way it does in fairy tales and romance fiction.

scholarly journals Cultural Differences in the Hedonic Rewards of Recalling Kindness: Priming Cultural Identity with Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-90
Author(s):  
Lilian J. Shin ◽  
Seth M. Margolis ◽  
Lisa C. Walsh ◽  
Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok ◽  
Xiaodong Yue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
The Usa

AbstractRecent theory suggests that members of interdependent (collectivist) cultures prioritize in-group happiness, whereas members of independent (individualist) cultures prioritize personal happiness (Uchida et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5(3), 223–239 Uchida et al., 2004). Thus, the well-being of friends and family may contribute more to the emotional experience of individuals with collectivist rather than individualist identities. We tested this hypothesis by asking participants to recall a kind act they had done to benefit either close others (e.g., family members) or distant others (e.g., strangers). Study 1 primed collectivist and individualist cultural identities by asking bicultural undergraduates (N = 357) from Hong Kong to recall kindnesses towards close versus distant others in both English and Chinese, while Study 2 compared university students in the USA (n = 106) and Hong Kong (n = 93). In Study 1, after being primed with the Chinese language (but not after being primed with English), participants reported significantly improved affect valence after recalling kind acts towards friends and family than after recalling kind acts towards strangers. Extending this result, in Study 2, respondents from Hong Kong (but not the USA) who recalled kind acts towards friends and family showed higher positive affect than those who recalled kind acts towards strangers. These findings suggest that people with collectivist cultural identities may have relatively more positive and less negative emotional experiences when they focus on prosocial interactions with close rather than weak ties.

scholarly journals Human Rights and Cultural Identity

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon John-Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Culturally Sensitive ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Ethical Relativism ◽  
Small Core ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Universal Human Rights

Abstract Universal human rights and particular cultural identities, which are relativistic by nature, seem to stand in conflict with each other. It is commonly suggested that the relativistic natures of cultural identities undermine universal human rights and that human rights might compromise particular cultural identities in a globalised world. This article examines this supposed clash and suggests that it is possible to frame a human rights approach in such a way that it becomes the starting point and constraining framework for all non-deficient cultural identities. In other words, it is possible to depict human rights in a culturally sensitive way so that universal human rights can meet the demands of a moderate version of meta-ethical relativism which acknowledges a small universal core of objectively true or false moral statements and avers that, beyond that small core, all other moral statements are neither objectively true nor false.

CULTURAL IDENTITY AND SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM IN KARMA BROWN’S NOVEL “RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE”

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alia Afiyati ◽  
Divya Widyastuti ◽  
Yoga Pratama
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Symbolic Interactionism ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
George Herbert ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
George Herbert Mead ◽  
The Past ◽  
Stuart Hall

In a literary work, two characters can be narrated as the attention center that contains the cultural identity from certain generation. Meanwhile, a symbol actually can cause an interaction within characters. This research discusses about cultural identity and symbolic interactionism reflected in a novel. There is a novel entitled “Recipe for a Perfect Wife” by Karma Brown that tells about two female characters that are represented as a housewife from different generation. This research uses descriptive qualitative as the research methodology and content  analysis as the method in analyzing the object of the research, a novel entitled “Recipe for a Perfect Wife”. This research also uses the intrinsic approach to analyze the characterization, plot, and setting. This research reveals two kinds of a housewife. They are a housewife and working woman, and a full-housewife. This research finds five cultural identities in the past and present time that is related with a housewife reflected by two female characters in the novel by using cultural identity theory by Stuart Hall. This research also reveals the symbol and memory even three concepts of symbolic interactionism that is mind, self, and society based on symbolic interactionism theory by George Herbert Mead.

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