Zmiana tożsamości narodowej a opozycja swój / obcy
Changing national identity in the light of the US/THEM opposition

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with changes of ethno-religious identity and ethnic stereotypes. The opposition between US and THEM plays a major role in shaping one’s group identity and determining one’s relationships with others (those who belong to us, who are similar and friendly vs. those who do not, who are different and hostile). Of all types of identity, the ethno-religious identity is the least amenable to change in one’s own environment but may and does change in a foreign context, among displaced persons, emigrants etc. Important factors of identity are cultural in nature and have to do with religion, customs and language. Depending on how much the community wants its new members to assimilate, the mutual relationship between cultures involves adjustment or obliteration of cultural differences. Identity may change in various ways: when identity is changed, the characteristics and relationships of the representatives of one group change through self-identification and naming; when identities are exchanged, self-identification and self-reference change together with the group’s characteristics (members of the group call themselves representatives of another nation or denomination). The loss of identity and the acquisition of a new one are most of the time parallel processes but they are not mutually dependent. Some aspects of the loss are not so strongly connected with the acquisition (weakening, neglect, oblivion and renunciation), whereas others are (double identity, replacement of an ethic identity by another ethnic identity or by an identity of a different type, e.g. professional). The analysis considers the role of the US/THEM opposition in various types of changes of national identity.

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