The Illusion of Cultural Identity

“Will Confucianism be the catalyst for the economic success achieved by Japan and the newly industrializing countries of East Asia? Will the West not impose on the rest of the world its own definition of human rights and democracy? Is African culture compatible with multipartyism? Does Islam constitute an insurmountable obstacle to the joining of Moroccans and Turks to Western Europe? Identity, as François Baya sees it, is not natural and imposed by circumstances, but rather a cultural, political and ideological construct. Basically, a historical building. Hence, terms such as indigenous people and indigenous identity are misleading and unsuccessful; There is no pure, pure identity, but there are identity strategies. This is the topic of this book, which discusses the issue of identity, which has been much talked about in light of globalization and what has been rumored about the clash of civilizations. This is done by studying the phenomenon of cultural closure and its manifestations in the ideological, political and academic fields. The book also addresses the issue of the emergence of the state, and the distinction between its construction as a conscious establishment of the political oversight apparatus and its establishment as a conscious historical development. The book highlights its overwhelming presence in shaping identity, enacting arrangements, and establishing oversight for it, raising a new problem about the relationship between political action and cultural action.