A distinct conceptualization of cultural identity that is theoretically motivated by the classic taxonomies of the self developed by cultural anthropologist Irving Hallowell (1955) and cognitive psychologist Ulric Neisser (1988) is proposed. It is argued that Neisser’s Conceptual Self, situated within Hallowell’s Normative Orientation, affords a unique confluence of theoretical tradition that successfully transcends the problematic dualism between individual agency and cultural determinism. This Conceptual Self as Normatively Oriented is designated a cultural identity and defined as a form of conscious, reflexive and evaluative self-understanding pertaining to that facet of the self which knowingly commits itself to the shared values and practices of a particular cultural group. It is argued that past personal narrative is a privileged site for the investigation of cultural identity and its construction. The unique suitability of narrative analysis for the study of cultural identity is illustrated with an example from a Gros Ventre elder of the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana.
Bauman, R.
(1986). Story, performance and event. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Berry, J.W.
(1990). Psychology of acculturation. In J.J. Berman (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation(Vol. 37, pp. 201–234). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
3.
Cooper, J.M.
(1957). The Gros Ventres of Montana: Part II. Religion and ritual. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America.
4.
Flannery, R.
(1953). The Gros Ventres of Montana: Part I. Social life. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America.
5.
Fowler, L.
(1987). Shared symbols, contested meanings: Gros Ventre culture and history, 1778–1984. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
6.
Geertz, C.
(1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
7.
Gergen, K.J.
, & Gergen, M.M. (1988). Narrative and the self as relationship. Advances in Experimental and Social Psychology, 21, 17–56.
8.
Gone, J.P.
(in press). ‘We were through as Keepers of It’: The ‘Missing Pipe’ Narrative and Gros Ventre cultural identity. Ethos.
9.
Hallowell, I.A.
(1955). Culture and experience. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
10.
Keefe, S.E.
(1992). Ethnic identity: The domain of perceptions and attachment to ethnic groups and cultures. Human Organization, 51(1), 35–43.
11.
Kroeber, A.L.
(1908). Ethnology of the Gros Ventre. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, I(4), 141–281.
12.
Linde, C.
(1993). Life stories: The creation of coherence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13.
McAdams, D.P.
(1990). Unity and purpose in human lives: The emergence of identity as a life story. In A.I. Rabin, R.A. Zucker, R.A. Emmons, & S. Frank (Eds.), Studying persons and lives(pp. 148–200). New York: Springer.
14.
McNaughton, S.
(1996). Ways of parenting and cultural identity. Culture & Psychology, 2(2), 173–201.
15.
Miller, P.J.
(1994). Narrative practices: Their role in socialization and selfconstruction. In U. Neisser & R.Fivush (Eds.), The remembering self: Construction and accuracy in the self-narrative(pp. 158–179). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16.
Miller, P.J.
, Fung, H., & Mintz, J. (1996). Self-construction through narrative practices: A Chinese and American comparison of early socialization. Ethos, 24(2), 237–280.
17.
Miller, P.J.
, Mintz, J., Hoogstra, L., Fung, H., & Potts, R. (1992). The narrated self: Young children’s construction of self in relation to others in conversational stories of personal experience. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 38, 45–67.
18.
Miller, P.J.
, Potts, R., Fung, H., Hoogstra, L., & Mintz, J. (1990). Narrative practices and the social construction of self in childhood. American Ethnologist, 17(2), 292–311.
19.
Mishler, E.G.
(1995). Models of narrative analysis: A typology. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 5, 87–124.
20.
Neisser, U.
(1988). Five kinds of self-knowledge. Philosophical Psychology, 1(1), 35–59.
21.
Oetting, E.R.
, & Beauvais, F. (1990–91). Orthogonal cultural identification theory: The cultural identification of minority adolescents. The International Journal of the Addictions, 25(5A–6A), 655–685.
22.
Peacock, J.L.
(1984). Religion and life history: An exploration in cultural psychology. In E.M. Bruner (Ed.), Text, play, and story: The construction and reconstruction of self and society(pp. 19–55). Washington, DC: American Ethnological Society.
23.
Peacock, J.L.
, & Holland, D.C. (1993). The narrated self: Life stories in process. Ethos, 21(4), 367–383.
24.
Phinney, J.S.
(1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 499–514.
25.
Schiffrin, D.
(1996). Narrative as self-portrait: Sociolinguistic constructions of identity. Language in Society, 25, 167–203.
26.
Shaw, T.A.
(1994). The semiotic mediation of identity. Ethos, 22(1), 83–119.
27.
Shweder, R.A.
(1990). Cultural psychology—What is it? In J.W. Stigler, R.A. Shweder, & G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays on comparative human development(pp. 1–43). New York: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Shweder, R.A.
(1991). Thinking through cultures: Expeditions in cultural psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
29.
Shweder, R.A.
, & Sullivan, M.A. (1993). Cultural psychology: Who needs it?Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 497–523.
30.
Smith, E.J.
(1991). Ethnic identity development: Toward the development of a theory within the context on majority/minority status. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 181–188.
31.
Somers, M.R.
(1994). The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach. Theory & Society, 23(5), 605–649.
32.
Wertsch, J.V.
(1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
33.
Wertsch, J.V.
(1995). Sociocultural research in the copyright age. Culture & Psychology, 1(1), 81–102.
34.
Wertsch, J.V.
(1997). Narrative tools of history and identity. Culture & Psychology, 3(1), 5–20.
