Understanding of Identity in Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilization

Stuart Hall defines identity as an ‘already accomplished fact, which the new cultural practices then represent’. We should think instead of ‘identity as a ‘production’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation’ (Hall 1994 p.392). An individual’s sense of belonging to a particular group, thinking, feelings and behaviour can also be referred to as identity. One’s cultural image can construct identity; such features as hair, skin tone and height. History shapes our identity.

Though it does not come up in everyday thought, cultural identity is an idea that all humans possess. Abridged, cultural identity can be simply explained as the sharing of a similar culture by people of various ethnicities. However, cultural identity is more complex than that, defined by an individual’s values, beliefs, and ideas of moral behavior influenced by their culture. Furthermore, cultural identity is ever changing from individual to individual. This means that although two individuals may be of the same ethnicity, differences in circumstances may cause variations between the individuals’ personal beliefs. As a result of interracial interactions, multiculturalism has grown during the twenty-first century.

Caws, Peter. "Identity: Cultural, Transcultural and Multicultural." Multiculturalism. A Critical Reader. David Theo Goldberg,Ed. Malden, Massachusetts:Blackwell Publishers. 1994 371-386.

This quote is attached the theme of cultural identity, a term that pertains to the “feeling of belonging to a group.” It is part of a person's

In fact, while the distinctive ideologies and religious groups still exist, the clear boundaries of different civilizations characterized by Huntington have blurred. When this dichotomy to recognize the world as direct confrontations between ideology and culture groups becomes no longer valid, the theory of the inevitability of the clash of civilization, thus, are now flawed, because it is realistically unreasonable, ethically wrong, conceptually biased and historically inaccurate. These problems regarding the clash of civilizations embody a misleading western supremacy shown in Bush’s speech as well as the war on terror on a larger

The civilizations, as identified by Huntington are Sinic [Chinese or Confusious], Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox [Russian], Western [Europe, North American, Australia, New Zealand], Latin American and possibly African. And it is among these groups that share a “common interest and common values” and have a “common culture or civilization” that will lead to more interdependence on members of the same civilization and less dependent on the West. Huntington’s theory is that the West has had [at one time or another] a negative impact on every other civilization, and this has led to a decline of power and influence around the world, especially the Islam civilization. Therefore he predicts, “the fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”

As previously stated in this paper, forming cultural identity may be more complicated today than ever. However, it is a critical part of a total structure of collective and individual identity. Based on the text, models of ethnic and cultural identity have increased dramatically over the last few decades. Today, most ethnic groups are accepting the fact that the United States is the most ethically diverse place to live and to raise a

The argument Huntington is giving is that there will not be near as many fights over politics and economic values but more of culture and religious values. Throughout the article he talks a lot about what he believes will happen but one thing that we can be sure is he believes that there will be war over culture. “As people define their identity in ethnic and religious terms, they are likely to see an “us” versus “them” relation existing between themselves and people of different ethnicity or religion.” This quote from the article shows us that he does believe people will fight because they see it as it is their culture against everyone else’s. It is hard to talk things out with people who believe the complete different things you believe.

In the argument “Clash of Civilians” written by Samuel Huntington, he states that Western conflicts arose between nation states and ideologies. During the cold war the First, Second, and Third Worlds were divided by their status. Post Cold War it no longer mattered. International policies shift from Western being the main focus to focusing on the West and non-Western civilizations. The differences in civilization when it comes to their culture, customs, religion, ethnicity, have been there for centuries and after the Cold War the politics among states is much less fundamental. Civilization is far more fundamental today and throughout time, civilization identity will continue to be a major component.

Introduction： It can be agreed that culture and identity have inseparable and intense connections. Culture means the way of life or the characteristics of a group of people, it can be defined from various aspects, such as religion, language, food, music, arts and and so on. Also culture is all the mental phenomena which condenses in the human production and life activities, including a variety of intangible values and physical creation. Moreover, Identity can be understood that who you are, what makes you different with others. The conception of national identity refers to the way that a country or a nationality define themselves with culture, language and traditions as a whole.

When looking at ones identity many thing can come in to play. Where are your family from? What are your religious believes? What is your place in society? These thing make up who someone is.

Samuel Huntington has made famous his thesis "the clash of civilizations", which was developed in his article in Foreign Affairs in 1993 and in the book that followed, in which the author expanded his thesis and reaffirmed the validity of his theory after the success and controversy that followed the publication of his article. In fact, the “civilizational” approach of conflicts today is now intrinsically linked to a comprehensive theory of international relations, which Samuel Huntington has developed by giving it an important value and a dominant paradigm

In most case, identity is shaped by culture. Since culture is a set of ideals life practices, routines and attitudes set up by a certain community hence culture plays a major role in shaping the identity of an individual. An individual’s character and attributes can be because of their background. This is due to the set up that one has grown up (Dumas 19). People tend to learn more about their culture, and as they grow up it becomes part of them. They embrace the culture’s beliefs and tend to do things following the set routines. The aspect of following the set routine and beliefs play a significant part in shaping the identity of an individual.

Lately there has been a thought that the difference in Civilizations is another issue that may cause a conflict. Starting from World War I the arguments raised by nations were over an ideology: fascism vs. communism, communism vs. democracy. Some people believe that the next step would be a war based on a cultural sense and religion. Such war would unite people with similar beliefs, views on the world, language, tradition and history. They believe the conflict of the future will occur along the cultural fault lines separating civilizations [1].

Identity can be defined by cultural classification which includes nationality race, religion, gender and social characteristics which includes