Cultural Identity Definition

According to the Hay’s addressing model, my cultural identities as a Latina woman of low socioeconomic status makes me part of non-dominant groups. My identities set me apart from the majority population which means that; I am perceived inferior than those of dominant groups. My lineage constitutes of indigenous ancestors that like me, share a darker skin tone that till this day is seen imperfect.

Though it does not come up in everyday thought, cultural identity is an idea that all humans possess. Abridged, cultural identity can be simply explained as the sharing of a similar culture by people of various ethnicities. However, cultural identity is more complex than that, defined by an individual’s values, beliefs, and ideas of moral behavior influenced by their culture. Furthermore, cultural identity is ever changing from individual to individual. This means that although two individuals may be of the same ethnicity, differences in circumstances may cause variations between the individuals’ personal beliefs. As a result of interracial interactions, multiculturalism has grown during the twenty-first century.

Growing up as an Asian American, I often struggle to identify my own cultural identity. Being the first generation of both my mother and father’s side of the family, I more than often get confused between American and Asian culture when applying them to society or at home. While being raised at home, I am largely influenced by culture and traditions from Asian parents and relatives. However, when I go to school or someplace else, I am heavily judged for practicing part of my Asian culture because it is entirely different than western or American. With that being noted, I began to learn and adapt to the western culture in hopes of fitting with society as well of trying to keep my Asian culture intact. As can be seen, this situation I dealt with is the same problem the whole Asian American community faces. Mainly focusing on younger generations like me for example, the Asian American community struggles to adapt to the western culture because they were raised with an Asian influence. Wishing to fit in society and be part of the social norms, the Asian Americans community faces issues that identify their cultural identity.

There is a Mexican man that enters with the rest of his family. They eat beans, rice, flour tortillas and etc. The family does there every day routine, the dad wakes up at six- thirty to go to work in his truck. The children go to school and the mother stays at home. The things a person does in their all has a reason which goes all back to culture. Culture is what makes up everyone different from one another. Texts such as “What is Cultural Identity?”, “Where Worlds Collide” and “Two ways to Belong” supports that depending on one’s culture it effects one perspective on the world and others.

Gender norms surround every person in every culture, even though they have variety in each culture, they are still real and still impact individuals who stand out from the norms. Leslie Feinberg's book “Stone Butch Blues” shows how hard it is to challenge gender in the 1960’s when homosexuality and the transgender movement was something that was just starting up. Leslie shows the reader that just by existing in a transphobic environment ze is challenging what it means to be a man or a woman, and more importantly, what’s in between. Leslie shows that gender isn’t just black and white, it’s a spectrum of colours.

Cultural Identity is “The definition of groups or individuals (by themselves or others) in terms of cultural or subcultural categories (including ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and gender)” (Oxford Reference). Everyone has cultural identity even though some are unaware of theirs because their habits and traditions might be seen as normal to the person and they might not make the connection that it is a cultural tradition or connected to their cultural identity. Some people are very aware of their cultural identity and have conflict within their identity because the cultures may not coincide. Frida Kahlo’s Self Portrait: On the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States and Pat Mora’s “Legal Alien” both show cultural conflict through symbolism, conflict, and purpose.

Nadia Lewis – Iraqi Women, Identity, and Islam in Toronto: Reflections on a New Diaspora

Back then during the 1900s, a substantial number of Asian Americans immigrated to the United States. In this entirely new world with the majority White population, most of them often encountered numerous identity issues and their lives have been dramatically affected. As a result, some of them who have been influenced by the American culture may have changed their perspectives of their own traditions or rejected their identities in order to “survive” in the White culture. As Robert G. Lee defines that, “culture is symbolized as the whole range of human activity in general, the particular way of life of a group of people, which consists of their beliefs, customs, religions, languages, protocols, music, arts, foods and so forth” (41), it

The models of cultural identity share most of the same mutual characteristic but the experiences each individual endure in life will have the individual thinking about their belief. The cultural identity is the individuality or feeling of belonging. When thinking about a Native American understanding the racial and ethnic identity of an individual is important part of that individual. Racial and ethnic identity is a contribution to complete understanding the Native American. For some mainly noticeable and officially clear in minority populations in the United States, racial and ethnic identity are established in very sensible way.

The objectification of lower class cross-cultural identities in Double Happiness is a crucial determinant in the formation of their characters that are built on the construction of ideologies offered by the media, the economic system, and family. These ideologies are a set of principles that have provided a distortion and selective interpretation of reality and have served as an action-oriented framework for this group of Asian Canadians to operate in their society. Without the understanding of the effect of this system of ideas, we fail to comprehend the values of these various institutions as being a map of the social world which individuals, like ourselves, can subscribe to and must constantly navigate. As a result of accepting such visions,

The issue of cultural identity is universal. Everywhere in the world, people all have different cultures. From Hispanics and Latino, to African Americans and blacks, to Caucasians and whites. Someone might say that “All whites are Caucasian”, or “All Latinos are Hispanic”, or “All blacks are African Americans”, but some of them might get offended if you say so.

The purpose of this essay is to critically reflect on the new ideas I have learnt throughout this semester, ideas that has changed the way I understand the experiences of the Aboriginal and Torres strait islander people. The essay will also link my understanding of how cultural identity can influence health equity, using the CATSINaM’s definition of cultural safety.

Cultural identity refers to the feeling belonging to a certain culture that is attributed to the upbringing of an individual in the given culture. Cultural identity gives a person the sense of belonging and belonging towards their culture. Modern cultural studies show that cultural identification has taken a new face. Various cultural identifiers can be used to identify the culture of an individual. These identifiers include nationality, language, location, gender, religious beliefs, history, and ethnicity. Culture is important in shaping the identity of an individual. The efforts of people trying to preserve their cultural identities can bring about hatred and division in the society. This is likely to happen especially in large cities

Cultural identity is the basis in which identification is used to express different aspects pertaining to identity and heritage. A person's cultural identity may be created by social organization, as well as traditions and customs within their lives. The two aspects that construct my cultural identity are the frequent chores I must complete every day in order to fulfill my behavioral expectations, and the youth group I attend weekly. These aspects are important to my family and me. Therefore, my identity has an immeasurable effect on my upbringing into this multi-cultural world I live in.

Culture and identity, through my paradigm, have never been two separate variables rather I have always viewed them as interchangeable definitions that coincide with one another. For example, with deductive reasoning, one can examine culture as producing a certain identity (also known as a top-down approach). Through an inductive way of thought, one could gain a sense of culture by taking into account an individual’s identity. In the most basic sense, culture and identity operate on the same binary and are limited reflections of each other. Historically, culture and cultural identity have been consistently targeted and attacked by royalty, government institutions, church establishments, dictators, and tyrants. These forces would often result in ethnic cleansing and genocide, in order to gain a semblance of control over their people. Culture is an inherently creative and diverse concept that some leaders found and still find threatening today; continuously, they seek cultural homogeneity within their communities in hopes that this will create a more obedient society. Moreover, identity is more personal and therefore harder (though not impossible) to attack. Unfortunately, few understand the tool that is intersectionality: as human beings, we are composed of various identities that intersect. This constituent of feminism helps to address the multiplicities of discrimination such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia, etc. As a result, we try to understand our own