‘Enculturation’, not ‘acculturation’: Conceptualising and assessing identity processes in migrant communities

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Abstract

Following a critique of Berry's model of ‘acculturation strategies’, the paper considers the relationship between heritage culture and ethnic identity. Analysis of processes of development, maintenance and redefinition of identity in contexts of alternative cultural norms contends with the assumption of conscious choice or strategy towards mainstream and heritage cultures. From the perspective of identity issues, enculturation of cultural elements rather than acculturation is often the more significant process. Going beyond critique to consider issues of the persistence of ethnic identity and processes of cultural reformulation, brings attention to the origins of primordialist sentiment within ethnic identity and the possibilities for generating situationalist perspectives. Reference to empirical investigations using Identity Structure Analysis (introduced as a conceptual framework for explicating complex identity processes) provides evidence for different identity processes and structures according to socio-historical context and the greater malleability of situationalists compared with primordialists in their empathetic identifications with alternative cultural groups.

Section snippets

Berry's model of acculturation choices: assumptions reflecting a benign implicit ideology

The purposes of this paper are to: critique aspects of Berry's model of acculturation strategies (a dominant model used in cross-cultural research); going beyond critique, suggest that attention be paid to the intricacies of identity processes in multi-cultural contexts in order to better comprehend processes of continuing enculturation in such contexts; outline aspects of the Identity Structure Analysis conceptual framework used in practice to assess such identity processes; and provide

Beyond critique: ethnic identity and cultural reformulation

In place of a model that ideologically posits that all cultures are benign, deserving of equal respect and having no antagonistic or incompatible cultural aspirations between them, this paper presents conceptual and methodological tools for ascertaining the complexities of identity processes of migrants and their offspring vis à vis those of people who constitute the receiving community whatever the prevailing socio-historical contexts. Such contexts may be various, such as, privileged

A conceptual framework for elucidating the identity processes of migrants: enculturation

Identity Structure Analysis (ISA) (Weinreich & Saunderson, 2003) provides such a set of analytic concepts, together with methodological tools for the empirical investigation of fundamental identity processes that occur on migration and in multi-cultural contexts. It consists of explicit definitions of psychological concepts and theoretical postulates about identity processes (Weinreich, 1980, Weinreich, 1989, Weinreich, 2003a), which are operationalised for empirical studies using dedicated

Primordialist sentiments and situationalist perspectives on ethnicity: modulations in situated identities

Many social anthropologists and sociologists (Glazer & Moynihan, 1975) have commented upon a seeming paradox. On the one hand, many people adhere to an ethnicity as an unquestioned given that continues down the generations (termed ‘primordialism’: Connor, 1978, Geertz, 1963, Greely, 1974, Isaacs, 1975, Shils, 1957, Smith, 1981). On the other hand, people often change their ethnic allegiances and behaviour to suit historical and biographical exigencies (termed ‘situationalism’: Epstein, 1978,

Examples of ISA in practice: ethnicity and migration

The empirical assessment of these parameters of identity requires the development of identity instruments whereby individuals appraise entities (situated self in various contexts, individuals, groups, institutions, icons, etc.) by way of discourses about values, beliefs and characteristics that are of relevance to the individuals concerned, expressed as bipolar constructs (Weinreich, 1980, Weinreich, 2003b). Bipolarity of constructs enables assessment of people's favoured and disfavoured

Conclusion

The assumption that people in intercultural contexts ‘choose’ to accept or reject one or other or both cultures does not accord with the intricate identity processes associated with cultural heritages, which generally proceed without holistic awareness of cultures, but instead with processes of identification with elements of cultures when forming a sense of ethnic identity. Migrants and the offspring of migrants continue to enculturate elements of the various cultural manifestations available

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for comments by Valery Chirkov and Pawel Boski on an earlier draft of this paper, and editorial assistance by Mehroo Northover.

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