ABSTRACT
Cultural identity is related to, but not the same as, ethnicity and ethnic identity. Edward Fischer observes that “ethnicity” is a socially constructed notion directly linked to colonial systems (Fischer 1999, 475). Europeans who invaded the land that later was called the “Americas” invented the name “Indians.” The myriad of distinctive indigenous societies and cultures became “ethnic groups” only as their territories were incorporated into colonial and later national territories and structures of power. Therefore, “Indian ethnicity” should be understood as “processual terms that signifies changing identities in relation to colonialism through history, rather than as a set of more or less fixed social categories” (Field 1990, 240).
