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Pages:
3 pages/≈825 words
Sources:
5 Sources
Style:
APA
Subject:
Social Sciences
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
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MS Word
Date:
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Topic:

Cultural Discovery and Identity

Essay Instructions:

Write an 4-6 pages (not including title page or references) paper addressing the following questions below. In addition, please integrate and analyze concepts from five (5) articles from five peer-reviewed journal articles (15% of your grade or 15 points). How is your experience similar and/or different from these writers? Which concepts apply to your life and which ones do not? Make sure to cite specific authors and article titles in your paper, including page numbers if you are directly quoting their work. See the rubric below for the guidelines regarding this paper.
This outline should be used as a guide in the development of your cultural autobiography. You may feel that some of this information is personal in nature; be assured that it will be treated as such. The contents of your paper will remain confidential. Each area must be discussed in the paper for possible full credit.
1. Describe your family of origin, including information on:
a. Composition (parents, siblings, birth order, etc.)
b. Extended family and relationship (how close?)
c. Cultural identity
d. Racial and ethnic background
e. Gender identity
f. Class
g. Religion
h. Sexual orientatio
i. Abilities/disabilities
j. Neighborhood and type of community (rural, suburb, urban; rich, poor, middle- class; diverse, homogeneous)
2. What is your first recollection about your cultural background? How did you come to identify with any group and to learn that there are “others”? Who are and were defined as “outsiders” and “insiders” by your family or group?
3. What went into the formation of your ideas in regard to your own physical appearance? What did you consider to be attractive and unattractive?
4. Who were your friends when growing up? Who lived in your neighborhood? Who was a “desirable” friend to bring home? How did you select your dates, roommates, partners, and/or spouses? How did these choices relate?
5. Can you relate any of your tastes in food, music, art, clothes, activities and games to culture or class? What about modes of expression, i.e. language use, accent, proverbs?
6. What have you learned about how children “should” behave and how gender roles are defined that could be related to your cultural identity? Can you relate your educational and/or employment aspirations to gender and cultural expectations?
7. How do you perceive power position(s) of particular individuals in your family or group in relation to their culture, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, and/or abilities? How do these individuals vary in power and decision-making authority?
8. What was the impact (or not) of religion on your family? How did your family feel relating to people of other religions? What role did and does (if any) religious beliefs play in your life?
9. As a member of a dominant group, which ways have you experienced privilege? Did you know you had it? How might you challenge it?
10. As a member of a subordinate group, how did you learn to respond to oppression (e.g. how was it explained to you, what functional and/or dysfunctional reactions did you witness, etc.)?
Remember that dominant and subordinate status applies not only to race and ethnicity, but also to gender, class, sexual orientation, abilities, religion and age

Essay Sample Content Preview:

CULTURAL DISCOVERY
Name
Instructor
Institution
Date
I am from a single parent family. We come from one of the most isolated part of the country, where each family seems to know another. As a result, my extended family is quite close. We are quite a tightly knit group, with uncles, aunts and cousins regularly meeting and relating. Our grandparents are still alive, and they have been the glue that has continually held us together. This is essentially what has kept us going, since we always help each other whenever an opportunity arises in life. This however, doesn’t leave out the fact that there are always a few guys, especially my cousins, who just love isolating themselves. Just like most families in the country, ours is also trying so much to get into, and stick in the middle class. We don’t have too little, but we also don’t have too much as well. Our neighborhood is quite diverse, containing people from all walks of life. Diversity is the main thing in the surrounding, but largely middleclass.
Cultural identity is an element that gives an individual that feeling of belonging. When one identifies oneself with a certain way of doing things, it gives them an identity. My cultural identity can be seen in the foods I take, my religion as well as the community I am in. I love traditional foods that are less in fats, perhaps due to my preference for lean diet as well as what I have been brought up in as the right food. I am a Christian and I also come from a Christian family, and my religious affiliation often guides me through various situations or moments of confusion. Religion played a huge role in my family, especially the teachings on loving one’s neighbors and forgiving people. Religious beliefs have helped us to fit in well and relate peacefully with other people.
I am in a cosmopolitan community and therefore, biculturalism is quite the norm. I am Hispanic, specifically Salvadoran and therefore, embracing biculturalism is key. Because there is a sense of entitlement to one's ancestry, biculturalism impacts both immigrants and their children. As the nation continues experiencing rapid changes in its population setup, it is increasingly becoming difficult to have a community fully isolate itself from the outside world and its influences. Despite the temptation to conform to the prevailing culture, I feel that a bicultural identity is still possible since it helps a person thrive and survive in both cultures (Kiang, Glatz and Buchanan, 2017).
I am male. My gender identity has influenced the social responsibilities as per the community and cultural expectations. Typically in my culture, men are the providers and protectors of the community while women are the home keepers. In fact, as Deason (2015) notes, it is a cultural stereotype that decision making is entirely a male exercise. This goes far to explain gender roles and expectations in the society. Children were brought up in a way that they should align to their gender in terms of duties and responsibilities. It was wired in them. I can relate this to my educational and employment aspirations as we have been brou...
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