The modern discourse of identity depends on others’ recognition, unlike older meanings of sameness.

Evidence

The general preoccupation in the social sciences with the idea of identity dates from after the Second World War. It marks a new sense of the word, highlighting the individual’s social locations and psychological crises in an increasingly uncertain world. “This is my name,” we now declare, “I need you to recognize me by that name.” More than ever before identity now depends on the other’s recognition of the self. Previously the more common meaning of identity was “sameness,” as in the statement that all Muslims do not have “identical interests,” and attributively, as in “identity card.” — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 778

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes two senses of ‘identity’ — postwar recognition-based vs. earlier ‘sameness’ — useful both as a concept definition and a genealogy of the term.
• XREF: connects to: Identity can be denaturalized to reveal its crafted and contingent nature. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 94