Building /ndonesiaism in cultural context is determined by the position of culture in the paradigm used By understanding the cultural position in a paradigm, we can comprehend the mode of lndonesiaism. This article discusses the position of culture in the three paradigms of cultural anthropology, namely evolutionism, structural .functionalism, and symbolic interpretivism and their implications for development of lndonesiaism. First, historically the three paradigms represent the three dominant modes of thought in treating humans as study objective. Humans are consecutively positioned as very objective, objective and subjective. Second, as the effects of the first, researcher's or policy makers 'pos1iion is sequentially very authoniarian, authoritarian, and not authoritarian. The three paradigms had ever been operationalized in building Jndonesiaism. In their subjective position people express their freedom to express thoughts and primordial identities in Indonesian present situation. There has been a shift from culture of polliics to politic of culture. Unlike the authoritarian New Order positioning citizens as object in structural­ fanctionalism paradigm that made strong national integration preserved for more than three decades, the paradigm shift to emphasize freedom nowadays leads to potentially degrading national integration.