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More handpicked essays just for you.
Cultural influences on self identity
Impact of culture on a person's identity
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We reside in a country where the population is so diverse that we have many contrasting cultures that are extraordinary in its own esteem. Culture includes beliefs, language, traditions, arts and craft, dancing, fashion, cuisine, religion, politics, and the economy. These are just a few parts of culture and some cultures tend to have more and some have less. Not many people realize how a culture’s implication is so philosophical that it makes us human beings who we are. Culture is the lens we see the world through where we grasp and appraise our surroundings. When you are brought into this world many people assume that you have already accepted family culture values. People aren't born with culture, culture is learned from the society in which we live in. Culture within your family has already been created many years ago but as time evolves different generations of your family have tweaked the values of the culture overtime. Coming from an Indian culture we have very strong beliefs towards religion and vegetarianism. Religion comes first for us and everything else follows. Now that we are moving towards a more open society …show more content…
In the United States you see more of a self demanding culture where things are changing as you evolve into yourself. Looking at culture from India, you are born into many small specific values you must live by that it makes it hard for you to change because of the people around you. In United States you live in a country where everything is allowed to be practiced where as countries like India there are some things that have limits. There are many situations where people tend to run away or commit suicide to get away from family culture and values. Sometimes even distant family gets involved if you were to break the rules of certain beliefs. United States is the best place where you can practice your own culture and find a mix to all different cultures to make something
Not a single person lives the same life or shares everything in common with someone else. However, one bond that everyone possess is culture. Culture is not the same for every person, and everyone that identifies themselves with a certain culture is not exactly the same (Trumbull and Pacheco 10). Culture consistently influences the way humans perceive the world, items, others, as shown in “Two Kinds’ by Amy Tan and My Mother Pieced Quilts by Teresa Palomo Acosta.
Culture becomes our guidelines sometimes blinding us. A person acts the way they do, because they were raised that way. This is especial true in Robert Lake's letter "An Indian father's plea". In the letter he informs his son's teacher how his classmates are treating him due to him being cultural different. The classmates act in this way due to their culture, and the values they have inheritance from their ancestors.
An author by the name of M.F. MoonZajer once quoted, “My culture is my identity and personality. It gives me spiritual, intellectual, and emotional distinction from others, and I am proud of it.” Each person has their own unique and distinct culture, that makes them different from everyone else. Culture refers to the characteristics of a particular group of people, including their language, cuisine, social habits, religion, music and arts. It is a person’s way of life and different groups of people have their own ways of doing things. Through culture, people develop a sense of belonging, personal growth and the capacity empathize and associate with others. Therefore, a person's culture consistently informs the way one views others and the world.
Paulo Coelho once said, “Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbor is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.” This quotation means that culture is an understanding of peoples way of living, and growing up. It teaches them to understand not only there culture but others around them with the same situation and questions they have faced.
When we think about our identity we often think about the way we look. Such features as hair color, eye color, skin tone, height and weight come to mind. Whilst these features are part of our identity, there are many more complex factors that make us who we are. Whilst psychological issues are paramount to the formation of our identity, I will be addressing the nature of our identity in relation to socio-cultural factors (Austin, 2002, p.9). During the course of this essay I will be discussing the term of Identity and some of the axes of identity, including Race, Class and Gender. It is important to understand some of the significant issues of identity so that we have more of an understanding of who and what we are, which in turn may help us to begin to better understand others.
Throughout the years, humans have shaped the world and many societies have developed different cultural patterns. Culture is the way of life of a society. Through culture, we learn how to collaborate with groups of people and we learn how to survive and adapt to changes. It is composed of values and beliefs that are shared by other members of society, as well as species survival. Every culture has different cultural elements that are vital to one’s survival in a certain place.
Culture is what makes every person unique; sometimes culture can be the reason one lives. By having commonalities and shared traditions, humans can bond with one another and create a feeling of community and comfort. Having similarities with others makes friendship and love form. However, culture is also a way that humans be different from one another. In the 21st century, individuality has become cherished. Every person can look
Culture, no doubt one of the most complex words of the English language, for years, scholars debated its definition. Clarifying what culture means in this essay or what culture means in an Intercultural respect would be to start by defining what it is not. Culture does not refer to products of the intellectual and artistic elites, or “high-culture”, nor does it refer Lady Gaga’s dress sense or Miley Cyrus’s Twerking or otherwise known as “pop-culture” both examples of such culture are merely aesthetics , for all intents and purposes of this essay, culture will be operationally defined as an ambiguous set of values, assumptions, beliefs about directions to life, procedural and behavioral norms that influence individuals with held membership, giving meaning from an interpretation of form with respect to others (Spencer-Oatey 2008), it is a distinct collective organization of the mind that discerns one group from another (Hofstede 1994).
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
To conclude, cultures are a major part of our lives and they constitute the image we see the world in. cultures can sometimes influence us, even in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes we find ourselves forced in cultures with negative stereotypes but that does not mean we should be ashamed of those cultural groups but rather embrace our culture and stray from the negative characteristics of that
Shiraev and Levy (2013) define culture as a set of attitudes, behaviors, and symbols shared by a large group of people and usually communicated from one generation to the next (p. 3). Many cultures have traditions and/or customs directly associated with that culture. There are several different approaches to understanding culture – evolutionary, meaning that culture exists to supply basic human needs (Shiraev & Levy, 2013, p. 13); sociological, meaning that culture is shaped and developed by the demands of society (Shiraev & Levy, 2013, p. 14); and ecocultural, meaning culture is fluid and individuals grow and change with the environment and the individuals in which they interact with (Shiraev & Levy, 2013, p. 15). Within this essay I will discuss a culture that I feel I am a part of, a custom of said culture, explain similarities and differences of the cultural approaches and how they pertain to my
The important thing to remember about culture is that while it may be fundamental, it is not innate. Yet it’s often not discussed, analysed or critiqued but is seen as being ‘common sense’. Culture is made up of the shared values and assumptions of a particular group of people. Because these values and assumptions are shared, it is easy to take them for granted and believe that they are ‘normal’. In this way it is possible for people to believe that the ways in which they behave and the things they value are right and true for everyone.
Culture is a concept that classifies shared values, beliefs, traditions, and principles among members of a specific group. It is important to understand one’s own culture as well as other cultures in order to become culturally aware. A way to become more culturally aware is to research one’s own cultural background. Through researching my origins, identifying my past encounters with other’s beliefs, biases, and behaviors, and placing myself into the shoes of another culture, I am more aware of the influence my culture and other cultures have had on me.
The word 'culture' is often described in terms of concrete ideas or social artifacts. Gary R. Weaver describes some common conceptions such as "good taste," "art or music," or "something that people in exotic foreign lands had."1 However, culture in the context of international assignments relates to how people perceive the world and the influence this perception has on their actions. It is culture on the interpersonal level. Different cultures can perceive the same thing differently, which leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding when one crosses into another culture not their own.
Culture, a word almost everyone hears whenever there is sociological discussion that transcends various formats ranging from scholarly articles to local news station broadcasts. Culture contains a myriad of definitions depending on the perspective and lenses used to view it. Since it is a difficult concept to grasp at first, we do not realize the true scale of culture and its responsibility in dictating many actions within our daily lives. Different cultures are found all throughout the world, from the ever increasing western culture to smaller tribal cultures such as the wintu in California (“Vanishing Voices”). What must be taken into account is the fact that culture is heavily intertwined within society, since they both interact with each other in some way.