The following article is to explore the ideas of cultural identity in the museum context, and describe how museums have come to terms with social and cultural changes and advocated cultural identity, while responding to changing social and cultural conditions. Museums can help people to define who they are and what matters to them in the world, stirring individual consciousness and constructing their cultural identity. In other words, museums should provide an enhanced opportunity for individua1s to perceive themselves and the manner in which they interact socially and culturally. In effect, museums not only portray cultural identity in the process of collecting objects ， but also build cultural identity in the operation of selecting, displaying and interpreting them. Museums thus play an active role in shaping public understanding of individual and collective identity through a variety of actions , including enabling participation by local people. National museums, as central places for conceiving collective identity and national goals through objects ， have played a role as purveyors, being able to respond to the needs of a nation and its culture. National museums promote a strong role for culture in political and economic development. They are, as an essential and central part of the nation's cultural wealth, also large tourist attractions: they are an economic asset of significant importance ， attracting tourist revenues. More recently, as tourism has become a global phenomenon, museums are required to develop an international as well as national reputation. generating revenue from overseas tourists. Cultural identity is the primary mission and raison d tre of museums: its predominant feature is the defence of identity and the continuity of identity. In order to offer protection. museums should help people to get to know themselves. offer tools to enable them to know their own history. overcome racial or ethnic complexes. and confront a cultural penetration that may be foreign to them. In other words. in a multi cultural society. museums have to be aware of the needs of minorities among the population. An equal opportunity for every group is essential in order to express their cultures in genuine ways which are meaningful to them while at the same time understandable to others. Museums would be a potent social referenæ and a means to construct our own history and culture in relation to others. This is arguably the greatest role that museums could undertake.