NATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

NATIONAL IDENTITY

25 OCTOBER 2015

PERSONAL NOTES

DEFINITION OF TERMS

NATION

A large body of people united by common descent, culture, or language, inhabiting a state or territory

STATE

A nation or territory considered as organised political community under one government

GOVERNMENT

The governing body of a state

IDENTITY

The fact of being who or what a person or thing is

NATIONAL IDENTITY

The depiction of a country as a whole, encompassing its culture, traditions, language, and politics

National identity is the sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions,
culture, language and politics.

A person's national identity is his/her identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a
feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one's legal citizenship status.
Scientists see national identity in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and
recognition of 'we' and 'they'

CULTURE

 Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the
universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of
generations through individual and group striving.
 Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
 Culture is communication, communication is culture.
 Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned,
accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social
learning.
 A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that
they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by
communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

Material culture

Material culture refers to the physical features that define a particular culture, society, or group, such
as homes, schools, businesses, churches, nightlife, artifacts, dressing etc

These structures develop a perceptual schema of describing the members and overall atmosphere of a
society.

Non material culture

Non-material culture refers to the non-physical aspects (languages, symbols, norms, values) of a
culture or society which serve to define the feelings, morals, or beliefs of the people in that group

CHALLENGES TO NATIONAL IDENTITY

MEDIA

Media often hypes the basic facts or information and presents them so as to increase the superficial
appeal of things.
Media overemphasis’s on the money and ‘glamour’ aspects, film stars, models and the ‘successful’
men and women in the fields of sports, business, art and politics.

The values it emphasises are materialistic; and the people who embody them are largely superficial
and artificial.

As a result, the cultural values that the media supports and which are taking root in society in modern
times are superficial and oriented towards money and glamour

MUSIC

Music can be a very positive force for a person’s mental health; calming, relaxing, and intellectually
stimulating. This is true for those of all different age groups; adults, children and the elderly.

However music can, and often does, affect our emotions negatively as well as positively; depending on
how frequently it is listened to, it can create channels in our minds and patterns of thinking.

Music can have major impacts on our ideas and ideologies, powerfully and emotionally conveying an
idealistic way of life.

GLOBALISATION

Globalization is not easily defined.

For some, it is a positive process leading to shared social values worldwide. For others, the term has a
negative meaning, and critics see it as marginalizing less dominant cultures, particularly those in the
developing world.

Some critics refer to it as the "McDonaldization" of culture, due to global advertising campaigns that
undermine cultural diversity

REFERENCES

Lalonde, S (2002). "Notes to pages". Determining boundaries in a conflicted world: the role of uti
possidetis. McGill-Queen's Press

Spruyt, H. (1994). The Sovereign State and its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Krasner, Stephen D. (1999). Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton University Press