National Identity

We explain what national identity is, its elements and various examples. Also, its importance today.

national identity
National identity allows citizens to weave a common imagination.

What is national identity?

The national identity It is the feeling of belonging to a historical, cultural, linguistic and social community which corresponds to a greater or lesser extent with some country, region or political community. More simply put, it is a sense of identity (belonging), based on the idea of ​​the nation, that is, in opposition to what is considered alien or foreign.

The existence of a national identity implies the manifestation of certain feelings of love, pride and commitment to the national political community. These sentiments arose in the early modern period during the advent of nation-states, between the 16th and 18th centuries.

National identity is part of what some philosophers have called the “imagined community,” in the sense that national values ​​can be embraced by people of very different ethnic, religious, cultural or social origins, but who were born in the same country. ground (or sometimes not even that).

That is to say that the national identity It is transmitted to those who are born in the geography of a national state and it is part of patriotic discourses, that is, of the rhetoric of nationalism. Thus, it allows the citizens of a country to weave a common imaginary, that is, to tell themselves (and others) the same story regarding their origins and the culture they consider their own.

Elements of national identity

national identity elements religion israel
Religion is an important part of cultures and countries.

National identity encompasses a different set of elements, which can be associated together or separately with “national being” or with the set of defining features of its collective identity. These elements are usually:

  • Language. Although an individual can learn to speak as many languages ​​as they wish, there will always be one that they speak most fluently and with which they associate most deeply, which in principle would have to be their mother tongue. National identity not only takes into account the spoken language, but also the variant of it that is practiced, given that the same language can have very different geographical realizations from each other.
  • Religion. Religion is an important part of cultures and countries, which may be secular or have an official religion, but they are heirs, whether they like it or not, of a cultural tradition linked to religion: the Catholic nations of the West differ in many aspects from the Protestants, and all are morally different from the Buddhist nations of Asia, for example.
  • Ethnicity and race. Although the nations of the 21st century present important and diverse margins of migration, which have provided them with racial and cultural variety, it is true that the idea of ​​a nation was born very closely linked to that of race, that is, with shared blood, with similarities in skin color and features. This, however, does not always have the same value within national identity: in many Latin American nations, such as those in the Caribbean, the intense miscegenation produced during their colonial history made it impossible to determine a racial criterion as “own.”
  • Traditions and history. In this category we include various aspects of culture, ranging from forms of gastronomy, celebration of national rituals, folklore, traditional stories, proverbs and word games, musical types, artistic preferences, and a gigantic etcetera of inherited cultural values.
  • National symbols. This is the name given to the set of signs conventionally chosen to represent a national identity: a flower, a bird, an anthem, a flag, a shield, etc.
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Importance of national identity

In the context of globalization, The existence and need for national identities has been greatly questioned. In fact, in some cases it has given way to a global consciousness, to the feeling of belonging not to one nation, but to the entire world to a greater or lesser extent.

This is partly because, throughout recent history, the exaltation of national sentiment (chauvinism) has almost always led to war, criminal regimes or has served to disguise despotism and corruption.

However, on the other hand, of National identity depends on commitment to the defense of national interests. Otherwise, there is the possibility of being alienated by stronger cultures, ignoring or despising what is one's own and loving instead what is foreign (malinchism).

Examples of national identity

national identity examples bavaria germany
The Bavarian identity is expressed through music, dance and traditional costumes.

Some examples of national identity can be:

  • Bavarian tradition. Southern Germany has a very strong regional identity, which has even served as a common place to represent the entire country. This representation involves the typical Bavarian costume, with shorts and a characteristic hat for men, long and low-cut dresses for women, generally in a bucolic atmosphere and accompanied by beer (for Octoberfest).
  • The Buenos Aires identity. In the Argentine capital, the city of Buenos Aires, the Italian migration forged local traditions in terms of gastronomy, typical dances (tango) and language (cocoliche and the typical Buenos Aires accent) in such a way that they forever marked the capital identity. Although it does not represent the identity of the entire nation, in foreign countries it is usually identified with what is Argentine.
  • The identity of indigenous peoples. Despite not constituting a single nation, but rather a very dissimilar set of nations subjected by the Spanish Empire during centuries of colonization, Latin American indigenous peoples are and are not part of the entire Latin American identity, since they have their own strong cultural identity. group, in which their surviving languages, their inherited traditions and a certain sense of the social linked to the ethnic have a place. It is a very complex case on which many scholars of Latin American culture reflect in depth.
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References

  • “National identity” on Wikipedia.
  • “Identity and national identity” by Ángel Cerruti and Cecilia González in Revista de la Faculty 14, 2008. Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the National University of Comahue (Argentina).
  • “National identity, national identities” by Hilda Sábato at the Freies Universität Berlin (Germany).
  • “National identity” in the Secretariat of National Defense of Mexico.
  • “How do people define their national identity? By speaking the language, study says” in The Washington Post.
  • “Nationalism (politics)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.