Cultural Identity Theory

Early Interpretive Versions of Cultural Identity Theory

Early CIT work was characterized by an interpretive theoretical perspective, in which cultural identity processes were described, but not critiqued. Mary Jane Collier and Milt Thomas combined the ethnography of communication and social construction and from there proposed several properties of the enactment, or creation, of cultural identity evident in communication texts. First they argued that individuals' messages during interaction may contain multiple types of cultural identities, such as national, racial, ethnic, class related, sex and gender based, political, and religious. Because individuals enact multiple identities, all voices within each identity group do not speak in the same way or have the same recognition by others.

Diversity, both within and between groups, became a key principle and was examined in several research studies. For instance, in the mid-1990s, Mary Jane Collier, Michael Hecht, and Sidney Ribeau demonstrated the multivocality, or different expressions, of African American identity, as well as some broad patterns of conduct and norms providing evidence of various ethnic identities among African Americans.

Early CIT also proposed that individuals' cultural identities differ in salience and relative importance across situational contexts, time, and interactions. In a study on ethnically identified college students' communication with acquaintances in the mid-1980s, Collier found that ethnic similarity and difference between the individual and his or her acquaintance were factors that affected how much cultural identity stands out.

A third property of this early work was the varying scope or prevalence with which the particular forms of cultural identities are visible. When Collier studied conflict among friends identifying as Latino/a, Asian American, African American, and Anglo American in the United States, she found that there were some similarities in cultural norms for members of each ethnic group, as well as with in-group differences with regard to gender and the nature of the relationship.

A fourth property of early CIT work was related to who constructs or produces the cultural identity and the ways in which these identities are communicated. Two processes were found—avowal and ascription. Avowal was defined as personal articulation of one's views about group identity, and ascription referred to how one refers to others. The most common forms of ascriptions are stereotypes of other groups. CIT scholars argued that identity [Page 261]construction is part reaction to past ascriptions and part ongoing and dynamic avowal of identity claims, and therefore both avowed and ascribed cultural identities are important. In interviews with South Africans in the early 1990s, Collier found that there was often a difference in described qualities of avowed cultural identities by insiders and the qualities ascribed to that group by outsiders. She argued that this mismatch could be a factor in continuing or intensifying conflict, but that the consequences depended on the status positioning of group members.

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