When growing up in a traditional civilization and continuing education in a mainstream environment, one can notice the work of two opposing ways of life. If one could study a traditional identity closely, one may sometimes see a mainstream identity in most of that organization’s people. Usually, a culture is any group of individuals that share the same beliefs, philosophies, and customs; identity can be defined as the image and viewpoints that others see when they look at someone. When looking into someone’s traditional organization, one can easily see two opposing identities. Similarly, Robert Bellah explains the formation of identity in his essay “Community, Commitment, and Individuality” which shows how identity comes about. Traditional society places a moral authority over its subjects, while the mainstream society does not. Such power can be seen in the Old Chinese customs inside of Maxine Hong Kingston’s essay. Her essay “No Name Woman” discusses a story of a Chinese mother abusing her own power to teach her daughter a lesson in morality. Some people within a group are responsible for giving power and identity; power is the ability to have more influence inside a culture at the expense of someone else. In addition, Dean Barnlund argues that because both groups want to increase their own well being, their opposing identities must clash with one another. He talks about cultural behaviors in “Communication in a Global Village.” All of these authors provide key wisdom into such things as culture, identity, and power. Customs can sometimes become a problem. One discovers that it is mandatory that one must reexamine his own identity. Until then, many problems may surface when transitioning between two contradictory cultures. In o...
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...d onto the responsibility of two separate viewpoints and values systems. The statements in this essay could or could not be true. Different meanings for culture, identity, and power, may exist out in the real world. The connections made in this essay may not be true to everyone because all of us have different definitions for these key terms. Such evidence in this essay leads to a conclusion of foreseeing becoming trapped between two different styles of beliefs. We saw that, two different beliefs comes from the groups that one has associated. When compared against other people these beliefs and experiences can be held responsible, cultural problems arise. These problems make someone’s switch between organizational climates harder for an individual. Based on all of this evidence, anyone can conclude that they have become locked out of both organizational climates.
I chose Cambodian Americans for my target culture because it was a place I knew very little about. My ignorance of that side of the world is laughable to say the least. Cambodian American was a great choice because both the people and the culture are very captivating to me. While some Cambodian Americans become very westernized, accepting most of America’s cultural norms, some hold strong to their Cambodian traditions and way of life. Through Geert Hofstede’s Taxonomy, I will explore the dynamics of the Cambodian American culture. Through Identity, Hierarchy, Gender, Truth and Virtue I will attempt to describe a culture previously virtually unknown to me. I chose Hofstede’s Taxonomy over Bond’s because Michael Bond himself told me to. “Charlotte, I did this work in the 1980's, and found that 3 of my 4 nation-level dimensions overlapped with Hofstede's and one was distinct.” said Bond to me when I asked him to elaborate on his taxonomy.
Kwame Appiah, author of Racial Identities, explores the complexity between individual and collective identity. Throughout the text, Appiah attempts to define these complicated notions, noting their similarities and differences. He calls upon the ideas of other philosophers and authors to help formulate his own. Essentially, individual and collective identity are very much intertwined. Appiah argues that collective identities are very much related to behavior. There is not one particular way a certain ethnic group acts, but instead “modes of behavior (Appiah 127).” These behavioral acts provide loose norms or models. However, Appiah also notes that it is how individuals essentially make or allow these collective identities to become central
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
Identity is one of the main questions throughout all of our readings, because it is hard for people to accept who they are in society. Accepting their identity as a minority with little if any freedoms sparks many of the social problems which I will show happening in all communities and cultures. The main issue we will discuss is how social environments effect the search for identity. The Mexicans in the U.S. module gives us examples how Mexicans try to keep their customs while living in a discriminated environment by the Whites. This module also gives us examples how people are searching for personal identity while struggling with cultural traditions. Finally, the African-American module gives us more examples to compare with the Mexicans in the U.S. module, because these readings deal with Blacks finding personal identity also through discrimination from the Whites. To properly understand the theme of identity, we must first look the factors influencing it.
Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Revised and Expanded 3rd Edition. McGraw-Hill 2010.
To begin with, culture is something that may change evolve within time but culture is something that come with your heritage or your ethnicity the traditions and things that happen that make up your culture like how your parents raised you are culture. In the informational text “ What is cultural identity” by Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco, and in the personal essay “Ethnic Hash” by Patricia Williams, there are similarities and differences in how each writer conveys their message about cultural identity. Based upon their research, Trumbull and Pacheco present the idea that culture changes and that it will never stay the same, while Williams uses her personal experience to develop the idea that many things influence cultural inheritage but
When asked to define ones cultural identity people usually take the path that leads to their country of origin. They describe their beliefs and tradition which mirrors the values of people within that geographic location. But what about the people who are torn between two cultures? How would they define their cultural identity? This is the problem faced by Henry Park, the protagonist of the book Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee. Originally from Korea, he immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was little. However, his struggle of trying to find his acceptance into the American culture still continues. The book outlines his endless uncertainty of trying to define his cultural identity and his feelings as an outsider to the American Culture. Not being able to commit to either of the cultures leaves Henry confused regarding his true Cultural identity which Chang very artfully presents as a fuzzy line between the American and Korean Culture.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
This work is very important to me because it highlights the importance of cultural identity and how this is continually formulated in spite of the dramatic rate at which technology is taking over every aspect of my life. I particularly find it interesting that even with the proliferation of devices and new media, I am not able to completely let go of what I regard as memories that define my cultural identity. These memories come from experiences and development of oneself. Cultural learning, also called cultural transmission, is the way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on information. Learning styles are greatly influenced by how a culture socializes with its children and young people.
Bhabha, Homi K. Interview by J. Rutherford. Identity, Community, Culture, Difference. 1990. J. Rutherford. London, Lawrence and Wishart: 207-221
Cultural theory is used to observe culture in different lands and observe how they differ; it also looks at how they compare to our own culture. It explores how these...
In the diverse world in which we live, each country has its own identity and culture. In fact, a culture has its own languages, traditions, customs and social particularities. We can therefore assume that the relationships between individuals change from culture to culture because of cultural distinctions such as impressionism and individualism. Indeed, in a collectivist culture, individuals see themselves as a part of a group, while in an individualist culture individuals are independents from the community. Therefore explaining the differences between a collectivist and an individualist culture with the examples of the United States and the Ivory Coast can help any sociology class student to understand how
For the purposes of this study I have defined cultural identity as the feeling of self-definition an individual has which is formed through a sense of belonging to a certain group. In this presentation I will be looking specifically at the effects of religion to this sense of cultural identity.
According to Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter (2011) “motivation is the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal” (p. 267). Organizations are always looking for new ways to motivate employees. In a global economy it is important to understand that cultural differences can impact how an organization can motivate its employees. Geert Hofstede (as cited in Sledge, Miles, & Coppage, 2008) believed there are five dimensions of culture. These five dimensions are power distance, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity, and Confucian dynamism (p. 1670). This paper will discuss each dimension of culture and how they could effect employee motivation.
This research project is centered upon the idea that individuals, specifically those in second and third world countries, need to protect their cultural identity by combating the imperialism of western, dominant cultures. According to research, some reasons behind this imperialism are war, totalitarianism, tourism, the need to fit in, peer pressure, immigration, and globalization. These reasons are prevalent in today’s society and can be seen worldwide. Some solutions to the problem that I found in my research are to create a multicultural society that embraces diversity, encouraging a multilingual society along with preserving dying languages, and protecting smaller villages and towns from tourism, industrialization, and globalization. While