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Conceptual Self as Normatively Oriented: The Suitability of Past Personal Narrative for the Study of Cultural Identity

A distinct conceptualization of cultural identity that is theoretically motivated by the classic taxonomies of the self developed by cultural anthropologist Irving Hallowell (1955) and cognitive psychologist Ulric Neisser (1988) is proposed. It is argued that Neisser’s Conceptual Self, situated within Hallowell’s Normative Orientation, affords a unique confluence of theoretical tradition that successfully transcends the problematic dualism between individual agency and cultural determinism. This Conceptual Self as Normatively Oriented is designated a cultural identity and defined as a form of conscious, reflexive and evaluative self-understanding pertaining to that facet of the self which knowingly commits itself to the shared values and practices of a particular cultural group. It is argued that past personal narrative is a privileged site for the investigation of cultural identity and its construction. The unique suitability of narrative analysis for the study of cultural identity is illustrated with an example from a Gros Ventre elder of the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana.