Culture and Labeling: Two Questions 1. In March of 2002, Prime Minister Thanksin Shinawata proclaimed that individualism is damaging to capitalism and that the secrete heart of capitalism is nationalism, which is also damaged by individualism. This reflect what can be called "cultural essentialism," described by Uma Narayan as a set of generalizations about beliefs, values, roles and ideology that is said to be specific to a particular culture. The Prime Minister's remark can be regarded as a reference to the process of selective labeling in which members of a culture (often the elites within the culture or other powerful figures) attempt to define the values and ideology of the culture in specific and often narrow terms.
Contemporary nationalism, particularly in developing or underdeveloped countries, is often focused on cultural preservation in the face of modernization and globalization. Narayan state
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