Reinventing the Self: A Philosophical Encounter with the Historiography of Cultural Identity

In addressing identity, many commentators have primarily focused on three types of associations: by land (shared history, geography, state); by blood (shared ethnicity, race); and/or by culture (shared language, religion, arts, and sciences). To discuss identity from these perspectives, however, would be a redundant and uninspiring exercise. Such self-affirmation fails to take into account the crisis that is responsible for the existent tension around issues of identity.  In this paper, therefore, I will make a case that traditional understandings which seek monotheism and homogeneity lead, at best, to a celebration of cultural and civilizational legacies of the past. In this paper, the idea of identity assumes, firstly, individuals whose sovereignty and autonomy are respected and protected, and secondly, nations who have engaged in self-examination have made distinct contributions culturally and have been given recognition. In the absence of these two conditions, any claim about a common human identity, human civilization, or globalization is a disguise for reviving the grandeur and splendor of old empires. To talk about identity and recognition is to talk about all of humanity. It means talking about those who have been excluded from participating in building a common future for humanity. Identity suggests an active process of representation; a process through which identity constantly changes by reinventing itself. Identity, then, really means the reinvention of identity, not holding it captive to history or a cultural past.