Cultural Identity

The term of identity is very much present in the vocabulary of social sciences and also in the day by day language, without people being aware most of the times of its exact significance. Still, there are many approaches and definitions of identity. But despite that, authors representing different tendencies agree on certain ideas. First of all, they all conceive identity as being dynamic and not just something that remains forever unchanged. From this aspect results the great importance given to the interactions between the subject and the environment: an individual never builds his identity by himself. This process of identity building depends both on the others’ judgment and on his own orientations. According to E. Erikson there are two types of identity: personal identity - the feeling of an existential continuity in time which is admitted by the others and the identity of the ego – the feeling of being in a certain way, of being a certain person, of having a certain style of individuality.
Cultural identity refers to the identity of an individual as a result of his appurtenance to a group with specific cultural traits. Having a cultural identity means possessing characteristics similar to the society you come from, including behavior, language, customs, traditions, etc. An individual with a well-shaped cultural identity distinguishes from other individuals belonging to other cultural backgrounds although this person lives in the same cultural environment as them. Despite the possible influences exerted on him by the members of his new society, he will continue to keep his initial traits, even though changed in some aspects, he will keep what he has inherited from his originary culture.
For a better illustration of cultural identity, let us see some examples. For instance, let us take a closer look on the Hispanic population of the United States. Although they live in a totally different cultural environment, which sometimes tends to impose its traits on the newcomers, Hispanic-Americans are considered to be united by customs, language, religion, and values. More than that „One characteristic that is of paramount importance in most Hispanic cultures is family commitment, which involves loyalty, a strong support system, a belief that a child's behavior reflects on the honor of the family, a hierarchical order among siblings, and a duty to care for family members. This strong sense of other- directedness conflicts with the United States' mainstream emphasis on individualism”(Shirley Griggs and Rita Dunn).
The examples can continue with many other people coming from all over the world, who have managed to distinguish themselves in many ways from the society they chose to live in, but I will stop here this time, hoping that someday I will have the opportunity to learn and write more about it.

Work cited:
Shirley Griggs and Rita Dunn. “Cultural Values of Hispanic-Americans.” May 1996
<http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/1996/griggs96.html>