Concepts of Identity Studied by Peter Roberts

Identity is a group of singular characteristics of a person or group that distinguishes them from others. Identity has different aspects like cultural and national identity. Cultural identity is typical aspects o the culture of a group that difference them from others and national identity is the sense of belonging to a nation. Peter Roberts in The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language,Race and Ecology talks about that cultural and national identity of the Caribbean.

Home, language, and behavior are three concepts of identity that Peter Roberts presents in the introduction of his study. For Roberts “…home embodies a psychological factor of attachment, which probably issues from the basic animal instinct of territoriality, but is more an emotional bond created through experience of a place”. The author also expresses that “Language is in part a universal human factor and in part a factor of place: human language manifests itself primarily in speech as distinct languages, each of which is geographically determined”. He also explains that “Behavior is the biggest category in judgments of identity, one that covers a wide array including supernatural practices, entertainment, sports and games, and educational practices”.

As a Caribbean I consider myself very different from people of other continents or even from people in other parts of America. I am from Puerto Rico, a Caribbean Island, and that comes with Spanish as my first language and with so many cultural behaviors that differentiate me as a Puerto Rican from other countries and as a Caribbean from different sectors. In agreement with Roberts I feel much attached with Puerto Rico, my home. I feel part of it and I believe that I contribute to my country. I also believe that part of way of being is because of being a Puerto Rican. We Puerto Ricans and Caribbean are cheerful, loud, homely, and worm.

My native language is Spanish and my second language is English. Peter Roberts states that language establishes a barrier between sectors “Language therefore establishes bonds between all communities of human beings but at the same time set up barriers between communities”. I completely agree with Roberts that language establishes bonds, because you feel more comfortable and you identify with someone that speaks the same language as you. I also think that a barrier is set up between communities when you have different languages, because you believe they are different.

In complete agreement with the author I believe that “While behavior may in some objective way be the best criterion for judging sameness, it is the senses of sight (color/race) and sound (language) that provided the initial and usually most deep-seated conclusions about sameness and difference in identity”. Studying someone’s behavior you can like or dislike them, because if you see similarities you on the first judgment believe that they are the same as you, but in the other hand you can exclude someone from your circle because they have different characteristics in their behavior.