Cultural identity: concept, process of formation, meaning

The increase in living standards and the development of high technologies have led to a change in all conditions for the functioning of society, the need to revise the very concept of cultural identity, as well as the mechanisms for its formation in the modern world.

Rapid changes, the fragility of new living conditions led to the loss of landmarks in the formation of socio-cultural identity. In order to avoid the alienation and destruction of cultural communication in society, it is necessary to rethink all spheres of man's spiritual activity, taking into account new sense-forming positions.

Cultural identity in the modern world

We live in an age of blurring of clear boundaries between societies with different traditional cultures and customs. The tendency to significant interpenetration of cultures has led to the complexity of a person's comprehension of cultural norms and behavioral patterns adopted in society. But it is their conscious acceptance, the understanding of their distinctive "I" based on cultural patterns of society and is called cultural identity.

Realizing, consciously accepting and self-identifying with the generally accepted cultural norms, a person launches a mechanism of intercultural communication, in which the emerging global virtual space forms new realities. What is the cultural identity of people listening to the same music, using the same technical achievements and admiring the same idols, but having different traditional culture and ethnos? A century ago, the person's belonging to cultural traditions was easy to determine for himself and others. Modern man can no longer identify himself with only his family or his racial group and nationality. Despite the fact that cultural identity has changed its nature, the need for its formation has remained.

Features of the formation of cultural identity in the 21st century

Awareness of oneself included in a homogeneous community and opposition of this community to another social group gives impetus to the fact that the formation of cultural identity begins. The isolation of societies, the introduction into the personal identity and behavioral code of the concept of "we" contributed to the grouping of all mankind into a social community, because the measure of opposition at the same time is also a measure of unification.

In different historical periods, group and individual cultural identity had its own specifics and mechanisms of emergence. For many centuries, the fundamental cultural attachments were given with the birth of parents and the local community.

In modern society, traditional constancy and attachment to the family and cultural code of their group are weakening. At the same time there is a new division, an increasing segmentation of groups into various small subgroups. The differences existing within the global group are emphasized, they are given great cultural significance.

Our era is an era of individualists, striving for self-determination and capable of self-organization in groups on different criteria, rather than religion, citizenship and nationality. And these new forms of self-identity are mixed with the deeper layers of traditional culture and ethnic identity.

Problems of preserving cultural identity

The problems of cultural identity take their roots from the personal freedom that emerged recently. The individual is no longer restricted by the cultural values that are given to him by family and national ties. The global virtual space largely eliminates the difference in cultural differences, which makes it difficult for a person to choose the parameters of identity and assign themselves to a particular social group.

Not only cyberspace, but also a qualitative increase in the standard of living allows a person to escape from the cultural environment in which he would have stalled a couple of centuries ago. Cultural achievements, once the prerogative of elites, are now available to many. Distance higher education, remote work, accessibility of the best world museums and theaters - all this gives a person a huge personal resource that allows making a wider cultural choice, but complicates identification for the individual.

Innovative and traditional culture

Culture includes everything - new, and old. Traditional culture is based on following customs and behavioral patterns. It provides continuity, the transfer of learned beliefs and skills to succeeding generations. The high level of normality inherent in traditional culture sets a large number of prohibitions and resists any change.

Innovative culture easily departs from established patterns of behavior. In it, a person gains freedom in defining life goals and ways to achieve them. Cultural identity is originally associated with traditional culture. Modern processes, in which more and more space is given to innovative culture, become a good test of the strength of cultural and national identity in our country.

Socio-cultural identity in conditions of increasing the level of communication between societies

Sociocultural environment implies communicative processes between people, as the main carriers and subjects of culture. When individuals from different communities interact with each other, their values are compared and transformed.

Global migration processes and virtual mobility of human society contribute to the intensification of intercultural communications and the erasure of the basic socio-cultural features of the country. It is necessary to learn to control and use for the benefit of information arrays, which exchange cultural groups, preserving their own uniqueness. Next, consider what ethnicity is.

Importance and development of ethnicity

Ethnic cultural identity is the result of an individual's connection to the historical past of the ethnic community to which he belongs and the awareness of this connection. The development of such awareness is carried out on the basis of common historical symbols, such as legends, symbols and shrines, and is accompanied by a powerful emotional surge. Identifying oneself with one's own ethos, realizing its uniqueness, a person is alienated from other ethnic communities.

The emerging ethnic consciousness allows you to build a system of behavioral patterns when you contact within your group and with other ethnic groups, accompanied by high emotional reinforcement and moral obligations.

Ethnicity includes two equivalent components: cognitive, determining knowledge about the historical and cultural characteristics of its people, and affective, giving an emotional response to membership in the group.

The problem of loss of ethnic identity

The problem arose recently, due to the wide spread of intercultural contacts. Having lost the opportunity to identify oneself through socio-cultural characteristics, a person seeks refuge in a grouping along ethnic lines. Belonging to the group makes it possible to feel the safety and stability of the surrounding world. Russia is a multinational country and the unification of cultures of various ethnic groups requires the manifestation of considerable tolerance and the education of proper intercultural and interreligious communication.

Globalization, which has shaken the traditional models of cultural identity, has led to a break in continuity. The previous form of self-consciousness fell into decay, and no mechanisms of compensation and substitution were developed. The internal discomfort of individuals led them to greater isolation in their ethnic group. This could not but increase the degree of tension in a society with a low level of political and civic consciousness and a powerful mentality. There is a need to form a unification of the peoples of Russia, taking into account their cultural and ethnic differences, without opposing groups to each other and infringing on small nations.

Personal Identity

It is difficult to challenge the assertion that there are no absolutely identical people in the world. Even identical twins, brought up in different sociocultural conditions, have differences in their features and peculiarities of responding to the outside world. A person has different characteristics that connect him with different cultural, ethnic and social groups.

The totality of identities on various grounds, such as religious and national identity, race and sex, is the definition of the term "personal identity". In this totality, a person absorbs all the foundations of ideals, morals and traditions of his community, and also builds an image of himself as a member of society and his role in it.

Formation of multicultural identity

Any changes in the development of cultural, social and ethnic patterns of behavior lead to a transformation in what we call "personal identity." Consequently, the presence of problems in any of these areas will inevitably result in a crisis of identity, the loss of one's own self.

It is necessary to find an opportunity to build a harmonious multicultural identity and, relying on a variety of behavioral patterns, to choose suitable ones. Building step by step orderly "I", the systematization of values and ideals will lead to an increase in mutual understanding between individuals and sociocultural groups.