Culture And Cultural Identity

Imagine walking down the street of a busy city and stopping each person to shake their hands and ask their favorite food. How each person reacts and their response is the result of culture. Every single person has a deep, complex culture whether it is visible to them or not. The word “culture” is so broad and overused. What is culture? To put it simply, culture is the behaviors and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. Our culture shapes the way we see and interact with the world on a huge scale. Our culture affects our personality and our actions. Education develops and molds one's culture. Culture forces reason behind having to assimilate and change due to a new environment filled with different cultures. Each individual

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.

Culture identity development is an important part of every life due the emergence of self through primary and sociocultural contexts (Ecklund, 2016). These stages of development are made up of either a dominant or a non-dominant group and intersectional adaptation. More specifically, cultural identity is a self-construct where individuals share the same culture, which causes them to attribute themselves to that group (Ecklund, 2016). Being a part of the dominant culture in the United States has opened my eyes to the privilege and disadvantages of being a Euro-American female. Through developmental status and coping strategies, diversity discomfort, intersectional dynamics, and vulnerabilities in discomfort I have developed have a greater

Cultural identity is people from multiple ethnic backgrounds that live in one world. Cultural identity describes me by being a black african american female, cultural identity around the word is different because some people may be Hispanic,asian,european,etc. Cultural identity can shape in different ways. Some different cultural identities may be your state, food, gender, language,music, and clothing.

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.

My dad leans over my shoulder as I check off the bolded “YES” box on my physical form. As I approach the Race section, I feel him tense up next to me. Without hesitation, I check off the “Black and/or African-American” box. Baffled, he asks, “Why did you check that box off? We aren’t Black.” I stared at his alarmed face in amusement, studying the ebony skin that envelops his being. Releasing an all-too-familiar sigh, I raise my bronzed arm to his.

Ethnic identity much like racial identity is difficult to clearly discern and delineate. As a social construct, it is an umbrella term that mark a group affiliation to a common origin, culture, religion, or geography; it consists of shared traditions, behaviors, values and beliefs. (Waters, 1990) Outlining the elements and components of ethnic identity, Phinney and Ong (2007) stress its multidimensionality and dynamism, it encompasses several cultural, linguistic, behavioral features as well as being developmental and involving a shifting process. They consider self-categorization, commitment, and sense of attachment to the group as vital constituents of ethnic identity. They show that “the process of ethnic identity formation involves the construction over time of one’s sense of self as a group member and of one’s attitudes and understandings associated with group membership” (2007, p. 275) Exploration and commitment are the two head titles in the revised model to measure the formation of identity across different groups (MEIM-R, Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure). The model proposes a set of questions that capture the individual’s overall knowledge, understanding, engagement, sense of belonging and attachment to the social group.

A person is defined, in large part, by their individual viewpoint, worldview, and self-view. These determine how we interact with others and the world. Of course, as many know, all people, especially during their childhood and adolescence but even during adulthood, act as sponges and absorb a lot of information from others, or even from Mother Nature, even if they believe otherwise. While a person’s viewpoints, worldview, self-view, and interactions with others are influenced by multiple factors, they are influenced and are defined by their personal social, emotional, cultural, and familial experiences by way of their culture identity and their social situation.

What was an innocent attempt to develop a young child’s interest for learning new cultures, came the unavoidable result of rejection to something unfamiliar. While rejection towards foreign concepts is looked down upon in our developed society, it is often viewed as harmless when it comes from an adolescent. Despite these “so-called”, innocent rejections, guiltless refusal is admittedly offensive to those youth who are left with the choice to either their cultural identity or to assimilate into the cultural majority.

It was until I became older and more mature I started to realize that my culture background was different than my parents. Being a third culture child, I had received and established a different culture than my parents. However, it was because of them giving me the opportunities to experience new cultures and places. My parents and their parents are all traditional, even though they have lived in America for quite a while. They choose to stick with their roots, instead of adapting to a new culture. In my culture I am suppose to have top tier education, successful marriage and stick to my culture’s traditions. On the other hand, I am more open minded than my parents. I am not afraid of trying and adapting to new cultures. My explanation to

Cultural identity is a feeling of belonging to a group based on ethnicity, social class, and etc. But along with cultural identities comes social barriers, which include a difference in race, gender, sexuality, language, religious group, age, and etc. When one is bound to culture, they receive a feeling of acceptance but have limited opportunities, in that they would be subjected in society due to discrimination. When one isn't bound to culture, they would have the freedom to create their whole path entirely without the constraints, but would have to find out who they are altogether. Culture is a way of life shared upon many individuals of society, but whether or not culture is a positive aspect of life is questionable. This topic of

    Cultural identity affect things on a personal level with its ability to shape someone's views on aspects of life. However,  it also affects things on a societal level affecting the way how societies across the globe function. Cultural identity is what causes shifts in society, ranging from political power, demographics of races, and even prominent religions populations, are all outcomes of cultural identity and its affect of bringing these things into a society at large. A person can’t go anywhere in society without seeing an evident effect of culture and just how much it really makes a difference.

The Individual and Cultural Identity as Viewed through the art work of Matika Wilbur and Rebecca Belmore “Fringe.”

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.

Ethnicity, culture and identity are all anthropological topics that effect everyone in the world on a regular and constant basis. These matters are continually being discussed, analysed and debated within our society, issues arise from these matters and anthropologists are strive to understand the changes happening around us. The definitions of each of these words are controversial as everyone interprets them differently. Ethnicity refers to ‘The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition’, culture refers to the patterns of social organisations, economy, and beliefs that are learned and shared by members of a social group.’ and identity is a person 's conception and expression of their own and others ' individuality or group affiliations. However, these definitions are often confused and even merged into one.