1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

Like nationalism , the concept of cultural iden tity is fraugh t with contradictions. On one hand, it may well be a construct, an ab s trac t ensemble of stereo types and stock images, th a t has been foisted upon a people-- indeed an o rien ta lis t s tra tegy , in the sense of Edward Said, which is perpe tuated by trad itiona l and conservative academ ies and cu ltural institutions— and in which cu ltu ra l iden tity continues the myth of th e "exotic" and fic tive Other. However, the concept of "cultural identity" can be positively recupera ted , without jingoist connotations, as essential to the impo rtan t endeavor of th e Third World, pa rticu larly the Philippines, to constitu te itse lf as an ac tive self-determ in ing Subject vis-a-vis ex ternal s tra teg ies to fragm en t it, an ae s th e tize it with irrational ideologies, demoralize and strip it of its c ritic a l facu lties, mesmerized by the false gold of m iracles and myths. For cultural iden tity to be an au then tic concern, it needs, firs t of all, to be historicized, viewed in dynamic relationship with contemporary events, national, regional, and global. By doing so, it is not re ified like a museum artifac t; it is not pegged to an ea rlie r time, just as the rem o te and rom an tic ized precolonial period or to the period of the Philippine Revolution of 1896. It is ra th e r this historical dynamism and in te rac tion which enriches it and in which it continually defines itse lf both in opposition to incompatible, indeed inimical in te re sts or in positive affinity with compatible, libera tive influences. Moreover, an au then tic cultural or national iden tity is necessarily defined in term s of the large majority of the people themselves, ra th e r than in term s of an urban, cosmopolitanized e lite in varying degrees of alienation from the grassroots. It embraces th e cu ltural and a rtis tic expressions of the folk and the work of a rtis ts who espouse th e ir causes, a rticu la te and give form to th e ir in terests, sentiments, concerns, and aspirations. A t the same time, the concept of cu ltura l iden tity necessarily opens living space for the d iffe ren t subject interpellations, not only for the global one of Human Person, or the national one of Filipino or o ther na tiona lities, as well as the professional iden tities of A rtis t, Writer, Teacher, or Scientist, bu t also fo r the range of d ifferen t e thn ic interpellations, such as the Ifugao of the Cordillera mountains, the Mangyan of C en tra l Visayas, the T'boli, Maranao, and Taosug of Mindanao, for the d ifferen t religious interpellations of Catholic, P ro te s tan t and Muslim. It also makes room for gender iden tites in contemporary redefinitions. Evidently, this sharpened focusing of the Asian and Third World Subject in its various in terpe lla tions necessarily resists the unfocused and decentred d rift of postmodernism, as well as the Eurocentric them e of th e "Death of th e Subject". For on the con trary , the constitution of the active, self-determ in ing , c ritica l, even oppositional, Subject can indeed be the p ro jec t of the region. As such, it stands against the human tragedies of anomie and anarchic d rift endemic in the large consumer socie ties of la te capitalism . It is in this h istorical moment th a t a rt of social and po litica l consciousness has emerged in the face of pressing national, regional, and global issues. The a lte rna tive would be an a rt of pure su rface sp ec tac le— a simulacrum as Jameson term s it— promising bu t withholding meaning, a technical tou r-de -fo rce , an a r t of sybaritic