There are profounder matters at work than mere unreason...
Among such profounder matters is surely what has come to be called "the search for identity." As "identity politics," "identity crises," "identity loss," [etc.]...the term "identity" has doubtless of late been much abused...But...something important is afoot. Something, something rather general, is happening to the ways in which people think about who they are, who others are, how they wish to be portrayed, named, understood, and placed by the world at large.
...When someone is asked "who," or..."what," he or she "is," the answer is as likely to be ethnic (a Serb"), national ("an Australian"),...or even racial ("a White")...as it is religious...
Available Light, Clifford Geertz (2000), ch VIII "The Pinch of Destiny: Religion as Experience, Meaning, Identity, Power.
