Construction of Identity in Globalized Milieu: A New Paradigm

Abstract

In anthropological perspective, identity is taken from the two opposite angles; uniqueness and sameness. Uniqueness keeps the properties, which make a person distinct from the others. Sameness keeps the qualities that a person is associated with others, with groups or categories on the basis of some salient common features. This article analyzes how individual or group identity is created, reshaped and molded after physical mobility of the people, what plays roles in creating identity, what values for that, and how it can be institutionalized. The paper concludes that immigrants’ identity is constructed through the interaction among the rapidly increasing global inflows of knowledge; their own previous worldviews; the new social cultural patterns of host country; norms and values of other surrounding immigrants, and the perception of external pressure. In the process of cultural mixing, there is possibility of cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization. Similar worldviews make the people nearer to each other which broaden the circle of ‘us’ and hence can lead toward homogenization of culture. On the other hand, dissimilarities in worldviews increase the level of ‘them’ therefore leads towards heterogenization.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v5i0.6363

Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 5, 2011: 191-204