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How do we maintain our sense of cultural identity in new environments? Meg Nakagawa
from Exit 11, Issue 03
MEG NAKAGAWA
Growing up as a half-South African, half-Japanese person and having lived in multiple different countries, I often find it difficult to define my own identity. Furthermore, coming to NYU Abu Dhabi and meeting numerous students with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds has made me question how we maintain our sense of cultural identity in new environments. Of course, there are many components that make up our identity such as religion, political views, race, gender etc. However, for the purpose of this essay I will be focusing on a person’s national and cultural identity. In order to grasp a stronger understanding of how we maintain our sense of identity in new environments, I surveyed 10 students from NYU Abu Dhabi about their experiences with identity. The methodology used to conduct this survey will be further explained in the body of this essay. In order to analyse the results of these surveys, I will be looking at theoretical concepts from Fredrik Barth and Pierre Bourdieu to strengthen my argument that moving to a new environment does not undermine or negatively affect notions of belonging and identity; instead, mobility allows the concepts of belonging and identity to evolve and become stronger and much more diverse.
Before I begin with the analysis of the results that I collected, I will discuss the methodological approach as to how I carried out my survey. To begin with, rather than choosing to conduct one-on-one interviews, I instead asked participants to answer questions via Google forms. The reason I chose this method rather than face-to-face interviews is because I believed that the participants would feel more comfortable typing out their experiences and because it gave them more time to thoroughly respond to the questions. Furthermore, considering that this research was conducted over a short period of time, in order to assure quality responses, I chose to limit the number of participants to 10 people. I am aware of the limitations of my research in that I have only collected responses from a small group of people. If this essay
were to be written over a longer period of time, I would have conducted research on a larger group of people. In order to keep the variables of my research as controlled as possible, I decided to conduct surveys on first year students only. The reason I chose first year students is because they are new to the environment and are still adjusting. Upperclass students have had more time to adjust to life here in Abu Dhabi, and therefore by asking first year students I would be able to get more authentic responses. I asked three in-depth questions to the students that I surveyed. The first question I asked was “how has your notion of cultural identity changed since moving to a new environment?” The second question was “how do you maintain your sense of cultural identity within a new environment?”. The last question I asked was “Do you think that being in a new environment strengthens or undermines your concept of identity?”
The responses I received when I asked the students how they maintained their sense of identity in new environments relate to the concept of habitus introduced by Pierre Bourdieu. Looking at how we construct the notion of identity in relation to Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus based on his book, The Logic of Practice, I will look at how this concept can be related to the findings of my primary source. Bourdieu defines the concept of habitus as the way culture shapes a person’s identity. More specifically, it can be defined as the way in which people perceive and interact with the social world around them, and the dispositions people develop as a result of these interactions. These dispositions are shared with people from the same background including their social class, religion, nationality, ethnicity, education, and more (Bourdieu 61). Through his discussion of habitus, Bourdieu makes it evident that it is not the geographic location that impacts a person’s identity, but rather the cultural environment that they are brought up in. This means that even if a person grows up in a country different from their origin or nationality, if they practice their customs and traditions and are in an environment where their neighbors or peers do the same, they will still be able to maintain a sense of their identity and belonging. When I asked the students how they maintain their sense of identity in new environments, most said they spend time talking to people from back home in order to keep in touch with their family and culture. However, one student said that he takes time to
remind himself to be proud of his identity: “I remind myself why I am proud of my identity, and that by sharing my culture with others I am able to teach people about my culture and in exchange I can learn something new from them.” In the case of this student, instead of feeling excluded from groups that he would normally interact with, he sees this challenge as an advantage that allows himself to have a deeper understanding of his own identity. The overall consensus of the survey I conducted led me to conclude that students did not feel as if their concept of identity was endangered by living in a new environment. Although the survey I conducted was done on a small scale that consisted of only 10 students, and this is not an accurate representation of how others may feel, it still gives the overall idea that perhaps being in a new environment does not undermine our concepts of cultural identity.
Despite the common belief that in order to maintain a sense of ethnic or cultural identity it is crucial to stay within the same region or country, this is not necessarily the case in reality. In his book, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, Fredrik Barth makes it evident that ethnic groups do not have to be bound to specific geographic locations in order for them to exist. Considering that identity has much to do with the ethnic group that one associates themselves with, it is important to define what exactly anthropologists mean when they refer to the term “ethnic group”. According to anthropologist Raoul Naroll, ethnic group can be defined as, 1. largely biologically self-perpetuating
2. Shares fundamental cultural values, realized in overt unity in cultural forms
3. Makes up a field of communication and interaction 4. Has a membership which identifies itself, and is identified by others, as constituting a category distinguishable from other categories of the same order. (Naroll as quoted in Barth 13)
Based on these definitions, it is evident that ethnic groups are not defined in terms of where they are located, but instead what their practices are and how members of an ethnic group communicate and interact with one another. It
is not so much the geographical aspect, but rather the culture-bearing aspect that is most importantly emphasized when classifying persons from certain ethnic groups. Identifying a person’s culture is dependent on a person’s exhibition of particular traits of the culture. This concept comes to show that persons of a specific identity can occupy different niches and still retain their sense of belonging. One point that Barth emphasizes throughout his book is that regional diversities do not entail differences in cultural orientation (13). This concept introduced by Barth can indeed be related to the findings of my survey conducted on the students here at NYU Abu Dhabi. Many students stated that they are able to maintain their sense of identity despite being in a new environment because they continue to talk to their friends and family from back home, and on campus they hang out with people who share the same ethnicity as them in order to celebrate certain events that they celebrated back home as well. Furthermore, as one student mentioned in her survey, students at NYU Abu Dhabi often form cultural groups such as the African Union or the Asia-Pacific Union and host events to celebrate traditions and practice their culture, and this serves as a form of maintaining one’s identity in countries other than their own.
The overall focus of my research paper is to grasp a deeper understanding of how we construct and maintain notions of our identity in new environments, whilst arguing that being in a new environment strengthens one’s identity rather than undermining it. Keeping this focus in mind, the responses I got were all crucial in answering the research question of this essay and supporting my argument that your environment does not undermine your sense of identity. In relation to the first question I asked, “how has your notion of cultural identity changed since moving to a new environment?”, one student made an intriguing comment when she mentioned that after coming to NYU Abu Dhabi, you are asked on a daily basis as to what your cultural background is and where you are from. This is something she did not have to face back in her home country in Zimbabwe because people already assumed that she was from Zimbabwe. Hence, she finds this act of explaining her identity as a force that strengthens it as she is able to reconfirm her identity and culture, and remember where she comes from. Despite being in a different environment from that of her hometown, it is these small daily actions that
allow her to maintain her identity. In terms of Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, in which he discusses that our social environment plays a crucial role in developing our sense of identity, we can see that this student’s statement on how these acts of explaining her identity to others serves as a way to maintain her identity. Even if a person is not living in their home country, certain acts that they perform in relation to the society that they are brought up in allows them to conserve notions of their identity.
In response to the same question, a student from Spain stated that instead of feeling like her identity is weakened by being in a new environment, being in a new environment challenges her to shape her identity:
“I don’t think I would use the term undermine, but rather the term evolve. Yes, my identity has evolved since coming to NYU Abu Dhabi in the sense that being in such a diverse community challenges you to figure out who you are while also asking yourself how you can relate to everyone else you are studying with.”
By this, the student means that she is able to realize certain things about her identity that she would not have been able to identify with had she stayed in Spain for her entire life. In addition to this, she feels as if being in a new environment allows her to understand the differences between each and every person, thus allowing her to understand how she can relate to others in order to create stronger relationships. This is a crucial finding as it emphasises that being in new environments allows us to transcend cultural barriers and look beyond differences, a concept that Barth discusses in his book Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. Barth writes, “interaction in such a social system does not lead to its liquidation through change and acculturation: cultural differences can persist despite inter-ethnic contact and interdependence” (10). His theory can be used to analyze this student’s statement as it shows that just because your identity changes, it does not mean that it becomes undermined. Instead it becomes stronger whilst undergoing change.
Contrary to other students, there was one student who mentioned that being in a different environment does in fact threaten his identity, however this was something that paradoxically strengthened his identity. He stated that “people undermine my identity but at the same time it enforces my will to maintain
my identity.” Since coming to NYU Abu Dhabi, there were times when he felt as if he was excluded from student groups that he should have been a part of because other students did not recognize him for his ethnicity. For example, he felt that this made him feel as if his identity was “threatened”; however, it also encouraged him to strengthen his identity more than he would have in his home country such that he does not let others undermine who he is and what his cultural identity is in his new environment.
Contrary to Barth’s argument that mobility does not negatively impact or weaken ethnic identity, other anthropologists such as Setha M. Low and Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga argue that there is in fact a significant relationship between location and belonging. The second section of this essay will be taking a look at arguments that contradict both my thesis statement and Barth’s concept that mobility does not undermine the legitimacy of cultural identity. In her book Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture Setha Low discusses the concept of space and place focusing on the effect movement and migration have on identity and belonging. The concept of transnational spaces is heavily emphasized throughout the text and is discussed by Low in terms of the negative effect it has on notions of identity and belonging. Within her book, perspectives from different sociologists such as Gupta and Ferguson are introduced. While Gupta and Ferguson discuss the concept of transnational spaces from an optimistic approach stating that in regards to “the isomorphism of space, place, and culture, this process of cultural globalization creates new translocal spaces and forms of public culture embedded in the imaginings of people that dissolves notions of state-based territoriality” (92), Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga look at transnational spaces from the perspective that transnationalism results in deterritorialization, affecting “loyalties of groups in diaspora, manipulation of currencies and other forms of wealth, and strategies that alter the basis of cultural reproduction” (28). In addition to this perspective, Arjun Appadurai’s perspective on mobility and transnationalism is that it creates a world where “minorities and migrations are flowing into nation-states, threatening the stability of ethnic coherence and traditional rights” adding that the increase in transnationalism results in pressure to maintain a sense of nationhood in terms of territory. By discussing the concept of deterritorialization as a result of increasing transnational spaces,
these anthropologists make it clear that mobility degrades a person’s sense of nation-state, identity and belonging because the increase in transnational spaces leads to a decrease in the concept of nation states. As the concept of nation states decline, it becomes more and more difficult to identify oneself in terms of a country, and Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga see this as undermining concepts of identity and belonging. These concepts introduced by other sociologists show a different perspective that can be taken into consideration regarding the results of movement to new territories.
However, despite these arguments contradicting the notion that moving to a new environment does not undermine or negatively affect notions of belonging and identity, taking a look at Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus shows that one does not shape their identity based on the physical aspect relating to where they were born and the geographical location of where they grew up, but rather more abstract concepts and the emotional connections and interactions they had with the people and society around them. Even if a group of persons is displaced or they have moved from one location to another, they are still able to maintain their identity and belonging through the concept of habitus. A real life example of this are the Kurdish people who are spread throughout the Middle East and certain countries in Europe. Considered the largest ethnic group without a nation of their own, the Kurdish have a population of about 25-30 million with the majority living in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Despite their lack of a nation to identify themselves with, they still maintain their Kurdish identity by “a shared culture, language, set of symbols, memory and experience, and future political aspirations” (Sheyholislami 21). Other examples include the Pakistani immigrants in Britain who continue to share religious and cultural traditions despite being far removed from their homeland. Madawi Al-Rasheed explains that this is made possible because of the ways in which we determine identity and belonging. When people identify themselves with their ‘homeland’, they do not do so in objective terms such as its physical features including climate and scenery, but rather with the feeling of national and ethnic belonging. These feelings are able to cross borders and be carried with migrants despite their mobility (Al-Rasheed 43). This is a key example that resonates directly especially with students at NYU Abu Dhabi
as they are able to maintain their cultural identity through their social life despite them not being in their original country. As one student mentioned, cooking food that she would eat back home was a way for her to remember family traditions and practice those traditions in a new country.
Throughout my essay, I have argued that being in a new environment does not undermine a person’s cultural identity. Instead, it strengthens a person’s sense of identity as it allows them to understand other cultures and it encourages them to focus on maintaining their own identity. By looking at the concepts introduced by Fredrik Barth, Pierre Bourdieu, and other arguments introduced by Setha M. Low, I was able to further strengthen and support my thesis statement and analyze the results of my survey. Although I can make improvements to my essay by surveying a larger number of people and asking more in-depth questions, I was able to use the results of my survey to grasp important ideas raised by students regarding how they maintain their cultural identity and the different challenges that they may come across. By looking at theoretical concepts introduced by sociologists, it has become evident that social aspects rather than geographic or physical locations are more important in maintaining cultural identity. It is not the geographic or physical aspects of a nation or territory but instead the behaviours and cultural practices that form the fundamentals of a person’s identity.
WORKS CITED
Al-Rasheed, Madawi “The Myth of Return: Iraqi Arab and Assyrian Refugees in
London*” Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 7 No. 2-3 1994. Barth, Fredrik. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture
Difference, Waveland Press 1998. Bourdieu, Pierre. The Logic of Practice, Polity Press 1992. Chatty, Dawn. Displacement and Dispossession in the Middle East, Cambridge
University Press 2010.
Low, Setha M. and Lawrence-Zúñiga, Denise. Anthropology of Space and Place:
Locating Culture, Wiley 2003.
For the past couple of years, the modest, burqa-clad woman has been shunned by the media for choosing to cover up, becoming a target of Islamophobia, harassment, national bans, and anti-feminist hate speech. The garment is falsely labeled as a symbol of oppression. However, unbeknownst to such ignorant views, Muslim women have the right to choose to wear the burqa, and many feel empowered by the privacy and control over their body it provides in a hypersexualized world. The purpose of this photograph is to epitomize this sense of empowerment. The modest woman exists, she enjoys her fried chicken, and she can devour it in a burqa should she wish to.
