Exploring the differences and resulting conflicts between one’s core (human) identity, and one’s assimulated cultural identity. The presupposition being that the former is real and largely sub-conscious, while the latter is virtual, inherently self-conscious, and fashioned largely from an accumulation of cultural beliefs…and the truisms derived therefrom. The concept implies that a process might be developed to strip away layers of cultural identity to expose (and liberate?) the core (human) identity underneath.

The initial object is not so much to define how one differs from the other, but rather to see what’s left once beliefs (and related truisms) are removed. Clearly, people can survive, reach maturity, and prosper in a variety of disparate cultures. Some cultures are absent beliefs that are foundational in others. Yet a person could easily grow up in either…and do. Understanding that, is the first step in understanding that acculturation (the acquiring of beliefs) is not fundamental to survival; that a human clearly has the capability to live successfully entirely without a cultural identity. So the question is, what constitutes that core (human) identity? And isn’t there at least a logical inference that it is largely unconflicted? If so, wouldn’t life be easier, more self-accepting, without acculturation?

A book project that considers the possibility of making a profound “next step” in individual as well as cultural maturation. A theory that grows from the rapid expansion of life expectancy which is now extending well beyond the pro-creative phase of life.