Mi smo ja, a oni su roj. Individualni i kolektivni identitet kao relaciono svojstvo ljudi i tuđina u naučnoj fantastici
We are Me, and They are Hive. Individual and Collective Identity as a Relational Characteristic of Humans and Aliens in Science Fiction

Author(s): Bojan Žikić
Subject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Sociology of Culture
Published by: Srpski genealoški centar
Keywords: identity – individual and collective; identity – construction; description; ascription; Us/Them; science fiction; anthropology
Summary/Abstract: We construct identity in order to be similar with someone, and different from someone else. In order to emphasize difference between those two intents, but also the consequence of the identity construction, we tend to represent the given construct in a way that it basically negates the construction process, and suggests the alleged essentiality of identity instead. Such cases are tested in real world by research of so-called identity description and ascription, which always leads to the expected inconsistencies in identity construction practices. However, science fiction offers almost laboratory conditions for examining ways in which identities are constructed with the aim of separating a group or community from another one on cultural cognitive level. Among frequent methods of that kind is the use of motifs about collective mind / genetic memory of aliens as an exceptionally important tool used for confrontation with humans. The aim of this text is to show how the mentioned motif is used as a mean for construction of the identification marker which substantially differs human from alien races, and which is built on the opposition between individual and collective identity as relational characteristics of humans, i. e. their alien enemies. Examples from shows and films "Star Trek", "Stargate", and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Third Beings)" will be used as explanatory material.

• Details
• Contents