Response to the Three Stages of Cultural “Defiance”
As I read through the three stages that a person takes as they transition through cultural “defiance”, I couldn't help to think about my own experience with this. I have traveled through 39 countries, and lived in a total of four different countries. I currently live in Casablanca, Morocco, and I have lived in both Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Of course, I was born and raised in the United States. My parents were both born in the United States, but my mother's ethnic background is Danish and German, and my father's ethnic background is Lebanese. His parents both immigrated to the United States from Lebanon. My father's parents were Muslim, but after they died, my father converted to Christianity because that is where his heart was.
However, he waited until their death to convert to Christianity because he didn’t want to disrespect his parents. So, I was raised a non practicing Catholic, with the belief in God. I tell you all this because I think that all of these characteristics make up the belief system that one has and either enhance or destroy any acceptance of another culture.
So, how I like to describe myself is a mixture of traditional values and open-mindedness. I think a lady should dress like a lady, and one should be married before they conceive a child, yet I support abortion. I am spiritual, but not religious and would be willing to date or marry someone outside my religious beliefs, as long as they don’t try to interfere with mine. I would say I am more open-minded then most Americans, yet because of my Lebanese heritage, I have some traditional beliefs as well. With this said, I believe that my own experiences through these stages, would b...
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..., and often times acted like the USA was worse. Or she would compare it to the Dominican Republic. It would make me so upset because she was comparing two places I love to people who don’t know either country. So, it was leaving a bad taste in their mouths. For example, when we were mugged/assaulted, she compared this (she was also mugged there) to her mugging in the Dominican Republic to everyone, but she failed to tell them the big difference. In Morocco the guy had a knife and punched her in the face. In the Dominican Republic the guy came by on his moto and snatched her purse, then turned around and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." My friend is a classic case of this stage.
I found these readings to be very interesting, and they definitely made me think. I will for sure be more aware of these stages, as I journey through my international life.
The reading Crossing the Border Without Losing Your Past by Oscar Casares discusses how even though people cross the border from Mexico, they still consider themselves Mexicans. Casares makes it evident how important it is to those people crossing the border to keep their culture alive and to still practice the traditions and ways of life from their home country. I think it was interesting to read about how even though immigrants assimilate into the American culture, they are still tightly connected to their country’s origin. I do not think immigrants are given enough credit because of how much they have to adjust to a new way of life while still keeping their culture’s traditions alive. I believe that they quickly adjust because they do not have a choice due to the way Americans act towards others and just the American culture itself. In essence, immigrants have a lot of pride in who they are. Also, many
There are many challenges that one must face as we go through life. I have faced a few myself, however, none proved more challenging than moving from my country; Jamaica, to the United States and subsequently moving to the state of Wisconsin. Deciding to leave behind family and friends is the hardest decision to make, however, there are a few things that I was not prepared for that made the transition more challenging than expected. Moving away from all that is familiar culturally, socially and economically can be even more of a daunting task than imagined. There are things that are taught to us by our parents and others that are more dictated by our environment than anything else, so when I immigrated to the United States I had three major challenges to overcome.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Staying strong to your culture’s beliefs despite the differing values between other cultures can deprive some people of what others may be free to do, but for some it can cost
Biologically speaking, there are not many physical elements that we can change about our identity, but we can change our identity in every other aspect. However, it is possible to grow up adopting a culture that one is born with and embracing the culture that ties with the color of your skin and choose to adopt the traditions of another culture and identify within that culture. For example, someone born in Africa can identify as African and embrace the traditions of their land. Moreover, African people may move to America, and immerse in American culture. Later, they may acquire citizenship in America, after adopting cultures as their own. Some may object to this idea of a U.S. alien acquiring a U.S. citizenship. However, a person’s identity, and how others perceive them, does not determine a person’s citizenship status. Notably, one gains citizenship through a process.
Something that has always fascinated me is the confrontation with a completely different culture. We do not have to travel far to realize that people really lead different lives in other countries and that the saying "Home sweet home" often applies to most of us. What if we suddenly had to leave our homes and settle somewhere else, somewhere where other values and beliefs where common and where people spoke a different language? Would we still try to hang on to the 'old home' by speaking our mother tongue, practising our own religion and culture or would we give in to the new and exciting country and forget our past? And what would it be like for our children, and their children? In Identity Lessons - Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American I found many different stories telling us what it is like to be "trapped" between two cultures. In this short essay I aim to show that belonging to two cultures can be very confusing.
Again I was raised neutrally with religion. As a family we didn't attend church. My grandparents are all Jehovah's Witness's, although both my father and mother ended up being disfellowshipped from the congregation. Since not having any religious influence being taught to me, I was open to explore different religions for myself. I learned about several different religions. I know now that I am a Spiritualist, rather than Christian.
I was so close to my Mexican culture that when I was actually exposed to the American culture it was like I was from a foreign place. When I started to get used to the American culture and started becoming an “American” I was sent to Mexico to a Mexican rodeo camp. There I was with people that had the complete different ideals than what I was just getting used to. I went through the exact same thing that I had went through in America. I was found in this big mix-up.
Times are changing and I feel like I am forced to conform to the everyday social norms of America, which makes me feel impuissance. Racial identity, which refers to identifying with a social group with similar phenotypes and racial category, is the only experience that I have with life (Organista, 2010). Racial ethnicity was used to build my self-esteem and to keep me in the dark when it came to how society treats individuals of darker complexion. However, once I left the confines of my family and neighborhood, I was forced to befriend and interact with individuals that had different cultural values and beliefs than me. This experience caused me to learn how to appreciate other racial and ethnic groups and their cultural values and belief. This is an accurate definition, of acculturation because I was able to understand and fit in with individuals different from me, while maintaining my own culture and ethnic identity. Therefore, knowing the importance of my ancestry, while acculturating and developing my own identity was all used
One example of how my culture has enhanced my freedom of choice is my upbringing. As a child and even to...
Each religion has a different set of fundamental rules and rights. When moving from one place to another we tend to bring our ideologies and beliefs with us we do not leave them behind. There are many different cases as Will Kymlicka mentions in his books Multicultural citizenship, which I will be referring to throughout this essay. As humans we have certain types of needs one of which is the need to belong. Belong to a family, community, group or nation.
Which brings me to Fowler’s Theory of Faith Development, specifically Individual-Reflective Faith which occurs in early adulthood. Growing up as a family we went to church every Sunday and sometimes even twice a week, everyone in my family was a catholic and that was expected from all of us, no questions asked. I even got baptized as a baby and did my first communion when I was about nine years old. I did not mind the expectation from my family when I was little because I loved church, especially the singing. Then came a time where both of my parents started to work on Sundays, so did my sister, and so my brother and I helped out at my parents restaurant. Ever since then we really have not made church a priority, I believe this is what effected my encounter with my mother when I was eighteen years old. I was currently taking a class called “religion in the modern world” and learned about all rituals and how different religions support different things than others, and it got to me to reflect on what religion I grew up learning about. Some things I liked and some things I was horrified by. So talking to my mother, I was telling her my opinions and what I believed in and that there is not just one way to believe or think. She was furious, I was stepping out of the norm, but it had been because of my Individual-Reflective Faith than lead me to this stage. I am very thankful I was able to reflect on my faith, I now have a stronger bond on my beliefs and now my mother totally supports me on it, so it was all for the best that I went through this
So, thinking about my question, it could be said that personal perception is never in unison with the worldview of parents or with what society allowed as acceptable. From a personal standpoint, it would be better to look beyond the limitations set by ideas that, because of economic status or educational achievement, one is confined or restrained because of cultural opinions. With study and faith, it becomes clear that these worldly classifications or opinions have failed to fulfill the broader spectrum of the unlimited possibilities God has promised and set forth in His word that is available to all who believe and follow Him.
To examine the impact of culture upon identity, we must first define what identity is. There is the age-old trend to view identity as the classical question of “who am I?”, when in reality, the common definition of identity is “...[the] individual's perception of self in relation to others” rather than the personality of the individual in question (Woodward). While personality is a way that we characterize ourselves by the traits that we posses, the identities that we claim are inherently a part of the groups that we assign ourselves. When I was young and in Sunday school, I was taught that the answer to the question of “who are you” is that I am a child of God, and I belong to the group of Christians. Now, some would reject that response almost immediately on the basis of that this answer does not define them, and in doing that, we have already segregated our identity based upon a group that we are a part of. Our identity is necessarily a product of our society and our relationships and the groups assignments that we give ourselves...
Establishing my own culture took years. As everything around me changed, I adapted, and my culture changed with it. I grew as a person and made life decisions that affected the way that I lived; as a result this caused my beliefs