Seite 292 [292]
KRISZTINA Kopó
avenues already there, as well as creating entirely new ones.”? Our globalized
world reflects our culture, and in turn culture reflects our globalized world.
Therefore, “culture is a dynamic way of interpreting and interacting with
the people, things and ideas surrounding a society, and [...] representing the
way that society experiences them.”? Culture, however, is not an arbitrary
construct, but relies on the evolution of a nation’s social makeup, which is
most profoundly affected by its history and heritage.
Our globalized world is characterized by international migration, which
increasingly affects cross-cultural relationships and marriages. One of the
focal points of the present article is an examination of how cultural groups
and individuals who have been subjected to multiple cultural experiences
fuse these into their personal identities. In previous decades, social
psychology has mainly focused on biculturalism, which is concerned with
specific understandings and competences in two cultures, for example, the
ability to speak two languages fluently and accommodate the behavioral
attitudes in two different cultural settings.* Transculturalism is an extension
of biculturalism, which investigates individual identities with multicultural
experiences.” This explores the manner in which people can acquire an
understanding of a culture that “transcends,” or in other words, goes beyond
cultures and blends elements of more than one culture. This intercultural
exchange involves the interaction and communication of different cultural
backgrounds, which is a major phenomenon of globalization.
Regarding transcultural identity, we speak of “not so much a social, but a
personal identity based on multiple intercultural contact experiences that can
have a long-lasting effect on a person’s values and worldview.” This becomes a
personal identity that transcultural individuals choose freely and consciously in
relation to the cultural factors they want to incorporate into their selves. These
personal identities are not fixed, but are open to new intercultural experiences,
which allows for a “dynamic or so-called fluid form of identity.”’ Therefore,
the dynamic nature of transcultural identity results in a self-definition that
consists of personal beliefs, norms and values. Whether the physical markers
of social identity, such as group identification and belonging, may be considered
an integral element of an individual’s personal identity raises further questions.
? Len Kuffert, A Commentary on Some Aspects of Canadian Culture, in Kenneth G. Pryke
— Walter C. Soderlund (eds.), Profiles of Canada, Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.,
2003, 97.
Kuffert, Commentary on Some Aspects, 97.
4 Melanie Vauclair — Justine Klecha - Cristina Milagre — Barbara Duque, Transcultural
identity: The future self in a globalized world. Revista Transcultural. Vol. 6 (2014), 15,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274718644_Transcultural_identity_The_future_
self_in_a_globalized_world (accessed 10 March 2020).
Vauclair, Transcultural identity, 15.
© Tbid., 16.
7 Ibid., 16.
+ 290 +