![Sample our Language & Literature journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5941/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Language-Literature.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Addressing the current gap in the literature regarding cultural festivals as a unique site of intergroup discourse, we invoke social identity and group vitality theories to explore the effect of attending an international cultural festival on members of different groups. A total of 143 participants at the 2016 Festival of Pacific Arts in Guam completed surveys and interviews concerning identity salience. Measures of ethnic identity and meta-identity salience both increased (and interacted) after participation in the Festival, and the region of origin also had moderating effects. Standard paradigms regarding single identity salience are discussed as well as future avenues for intercultural work.
Acknowledgements
Overwhelming thanks to the Festival organisers for their efforts in organising and shepherding the Festival, with especial gratitude to both Elise Huffer who encouraged the delegations to participate in this research and to Lilnabeth Somera, who provided very helpful local support during the Festival. Thanks to Karen Myers and Daniel Linz for assistance in crafting the survey instrumentsWe appreciate greatly the careful feedback and assistance from two anonymous reviewers, as well as very influential support from the editor.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The way in which these identities relate in broader Pacific context, and how participants labelled themselves at the Festival is discussed in-depth in the Methods section. Participants were asked to provide the name of their own ethnic-level ethnic category for analytical purposes. Throughout this manuscript, we refer to these categorizations as ethnic identity groups, with a recognition that ethnic, cultural, and national identity are not synonymous. However, throughout the Festival the participants are divided up into delegations based on these groupings. When participant responses were analyzed, some key trends emerged which correlate to regional groupings within Oceania that are constantly made salient during the Festival.
2 A table of fit indices for all ten LPA models are available from the authors upon request. The two-profile models were chosen after examining changes in a range of fit indices and weighing conceptual considerations. Extensive work was completed to decide on these specific profiles as well as the LTAs. Both the dataset and the analyses run are available upon request from the first author.
3 For the sake of space, we discussed three examples of how participants transitioned profiles over time (e.g., the results for New Zealanders) and three examples of how participants stayed in the same profiles over time (e.g., the results for Guamanians). A full table detailing how participants in all other ethnic groups transitioned between profiles across time is available upon request.