Dynamics Of Cultural Identity Research Articles

Language Attrition and Cultural Identity Dynamics in International Schools in Azerbaijan

Language Attrition and Cultural Identity Dynamics in International Schools in Azerbaijan

Spaces of Meanings and Translators’ Identities

<p>The focus of the paper is the analysis of translators’ identities as expressed in Polish-to-English and English-to-Polish translations understood in terms of informed choices from spaces of meanings. The first part of the paper deals with the relation of approximate correspondences between thought and reality on the one hand, and between thought, image, linguistic system and cultural emotional type on the other. The concept of semantic approximation in communication, introduced in Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (2010, 2012) is shown to be conditioned by cognitive categorization problems of the language user, as well as a conscious choice of the syntactic structure and meanings in discourse. The conscious choices from meaning spaces are motivated by the translator’s subjective intentions, as well as constraints imposed by the Target Language systems (displaced equivalence patterns), limitation on the translator’s linguistic repertory and by Source Culture and Target Culture models and conventions. In the second part the study an interpretation is proposed of semantic and cultural SL and TL similarities, meaning displacement and reconceptualization in monolingual and intercultural communication and translation to account for the translator’s linguistic and cultural identity dynamics, with a varying emotional message. It is illustrated by examples of Polish-to-English and English-to-Polish translations.</p>

The (Diverse) Company You Keep: Content and Structure of Immigrants’ Social Networks as a Window Into Intercultural Relations in Catalonia

This research examines how the social networks of immigrants residing in a European bicultural and bilingual context (Catalonia) relate to levels of adjustment (both psychological and sociocultural) and to bicultural identity integration (BII). Moroccan, Pakistani, Ecuadorian, and Romanian immigrants residing in Barcelona nominated 25 individuals (i.e., alters) from their habitual social networks and provided demographic (e.g., ethnicity), relationship type (e.g., family, friend, neighbor), and structural (who knew whom) information for each of these alters. Even after controlling for individual-level demographic and acculturation variables, the content and structure of immigrants’ personal social networks had unique associations with both types of adjustment and with BII. Specifically, the overall degree of cultural diversity in the network and the amount of Catalan (but not Spanish) “weak” ties (i.e., acquaintances, colleagues, neighbors) positively predicted these outcomes. Amount of interconnectedness between local coethnic and Catalan/Spanish alters also predicted sociocultural adjustment and BII positively. Finally, against a “culture and language similarity” hypothesis, Moroccan and Pakistani participants had social networks that were more culturally integrated, relative to Ecuadorians and Romanians. Results from this study attest to the importance of examining actual intercultural relations and going beyond individuals’ reported acculturation preferences to understand immigrants’ overall adaptation and cultural identity dynamics. Furthermore, results highlight the interplay between interculturalism experienced at the intrapersonal, subjective level (i.e., BII), and at the meso-level (i.e., having culturally diverse networks that also include interethnic ties among alters).

Cultural identity dynamics: Capturing changes in cultural identities over time and their intraindividual organization

AbstractImportant life transitions – such as migration – have the potential to enrich one's sense of self, but they are also demanding and challenging. The current research investigates how cultural identities change and become configured over time among newly arrived international students and the social factors that predict these longitudinal changes. A four‐wave longitudinal study was conducted during international students' first year in their new country (N = 278). Multivariate hierarchical linear modeling analyses allowed us to unpack both baseline (between‐person) and intraindividual change (within‐person) effects. Whereas increased psychological need satisfaction via both the new and one's heritage cultural group predicted increased identity integration, greater discrimination (i.e., both at baseline and an increase over time) predicted increased compartmentalization and the predominance (categorization) of one identity over the others. Results are discussed in light of novel theoretical developments in the acculturation and identity change literatures.

Cultural Identity Dynamics and Intersubjective Cultural Representations

Cultural Identity Dynamics and Intersubjective Cultural Representations

The serpent's children: semiotics of cultural genesis in Arawak and Trobriand myth

While functionalist accounts of myth have generally yielded to structural analyses since the appearance some 25 years ago of Lévi‐Strauss's essay, “The Structural Study of Myth,” the relationship between myth and that analytical entity called “culture” is still unclear. The difficulty can be traced to an unfinished anthropological dialogue about what culture is or what cultures are, and how it/they can best be described. My central thesis is that anthropologists have tended to regard their subject matter—culture—as a received object of study and that they have been mistaken in this tendency. The article proposes to regard “a culture” as generated meaning, a motivated affirmation of a system of differences. Establishing the semiotic form of two Arawak and Trobriand origin myths helps to show how anthropological theories are themselves composed. A textual criticism of one theory of myth—Malinowski's—is combined with an analysis of two bona fide “primitive” myths. The comparison indicates that the myths provide better theory about the dynamics of cultural identity than does the theory of myth, [cultural theory, semiotics, myth, Malinowski]