Historical Perspectives on Iranian Cultural Identity

Abstract

In its most general sense, culture is “the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features that characterize a society or social group. It includes not only the arts and letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of the human being, value systems, traditions, and beliefs.” It is through culture that one recognizes and expresses her/himself. This is the point that the issue of “Identity,” “Cultural Identity,” and also “National Identity” forms and matters, for “every culture represents a unique and irreplaceable body of values since each people’s tradition and forms of expression are its most effective means of demonstrating its presence in the world.” As Craig Calhoun, sociologist mentions: “We know of no people without names, no languages or cultures in which some manner of distinctions between self and other, we and they, are not made.” Identity leads an individual or a group to the certain position in the social world. It defines that one/group belongs to what, whom, when, and where, while designates what is not. Through identity people define themselves and are defined by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, and culture. Identity, therefore, is a concept which combines the inner or personal world with collective space of cultural forms and social relationships. In other words, and from a sociological point of view, although identity is something foundational and essential, “all identities are constructed.” Various causes and backgrounds are involved in constructing identity which poses several arguments depending on each person or nation. Identity can be produced through assembling various memories, experiences, episodes, etc. The permanence and revival of all these issues depend on their process of narration. “Identity produced through the narratives people use to explain and understand their lives.” Thus identity is made up through making a story out of a life and the way it is interpreted continually. According to philosopher Paul Ricoeur: