Cultural Heritage and Personal Introspection - Essay Example

My Cultural Heritage and Personal Introspection Introduction My Cultural Heritage and Personal Experience Introduction Each among us is definitely unique in his or her specific ways. Nonetheless, the uniqueness of individual’s very own identity is also shaped by his or her particular culture. Culture is comprised of both explicit and implicit patterns of behaviors in which culture’s most important element contains the traditional ideas as well as their attached values (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952). Culture is patterns and models that pass through all aspects of social interaction of human being (Damen, 1987). Culture embraces the following components such as ideas, habits, values, goods, inherited artefacts and technical processes (Malinowski, 1944). In this regard, this paper mainly aims at a critical exploration of my cultural heritage and personal experience. Specifically, it aims at answering four points. First, it aims to identify the country or countries from which they emanate with a brief summary of how ancestors came to live in various areas of the United States. Second, it intends to briefly discuss values, morals, religious or spiritual beliefs or other items that important to the student’s nuclear and extended family. Third, it plans to succinctly explain how the family has handled interactions with racial/ethnic groups that are different from their racial/ethnic background and briefly explain how members of the family who belong to other minority groups (e.g., women, sexual minorities, people of multiracial descent, persons with disabilities, older adults) have been treated or what they have experienced. Fourth, it targets to reflect upon and then briefly recount what has been learned about the family system and explore what biases the student may maintain toward those who are different from him/her.  My Cultural Heritage and Personal Experience To know my very own cultural heritage, I have known that initially, I have to know where my ancestors have originated before they happen to live here in US. In this case, I have interviewed both my father and mother. Well, it is not really much of a one – on – one interview with a structured questionnaire but what happened is a diad or simultaneous interview with both of them with a discussion guide which basically contains unstructured questions rooting our cultural heritage. According to them, we can trace our ancestral roots in Ireland, though this is not really new to me since I knew this fact since I was a kid. Nonetheless, despite this case, I was born and raised in America, in fact, I am an American. However, when I am home, I can feel the Irish vibes. In further interviewing them, our family believes and values Roman Catholic as our religion in which according to my parents, our morals and values are shaped by our religion. According to Taylor (1995) and Communicaid Group, Ltd. (2011), about nine in 10 people in Ireland are Catholics. As Catholics, we respect marriage even though nowadays, marriage is not really seen as the way it was seen before due to the existence of non-conventional types of families. However, our family as influenced by our Irish culture is conservative when it comes to issues like abortion and homosexuality. Apart from this, my family highly considers the importance of education in our lives. For them, as they always instil on me as well as my two sisters, education is the key for us to be achieve our goals and be successful. On the one hand, work is something really valued in our family. Likewise, humor is something our family consider to be important in every aspect of our lives which can be observed usually in the way we talk. This is because humor is an important element in the Irish culture (Clancy, et al., 1995; Communicaid Group, Ltd, 2011; Culture Crossing). In addition to that, humor is a measure of attachment or even a sort of self-depreciation (Culture Crossing). From my parents, I have always learn and continuously reminded to stay humble in which this family value has also rooted from the Irish culture (Clancy et al., 1995; Culture Crossing). On the one hand, our ancestral roots were once subject to discrimination. Our great grandparents Irish immigrants were once subject to stereotyping such as gifted with music and dance skills, happy, stupid as well as lazy (Ignatiev, 1995). Still up to now, discrimination against the Irish has not entirely disappeared (Jensen, 2002). Before, it had been so much difficult for them to find and be hired in white collar jobs. In this regard, today, our family and relatives dominate the blue collar jobs. Nonetheless, my parents have said that the situation now is much more fine than it was before simply because of our skin color. Being white has lessened the discrimination towards the Irish minorities unlike the other black and Asian minorities. However, my ancestors are not only discriminated because of our Irish roots but because of their gender and age too. It was too difficult to adjust in this sort of situation but thanks for the Irish culture too. Our cultural values, humor especially, have helped my ancestors adapt to the unjust situation. Despite how ironic the situation is, humor has assisted my family to just laugh at things despite its weight. Being humble and modest, as part of the Irish culture, has also aided them to survive the discriminatory practices towards them. However, in this day and age, for me, the situation has really improved. As an Irish American man, I sense that I am more accepted than the cases of my ancestral roots when they had migrated here in US. I don't really feel that I am a minority because of being white and because of my gender. Apart from that, I think it is also for the reason that I have learned to adapt the American culture in which I now live. Like my Irish cultural heritage, the American culture has also influenced how I behave. These two cultures have played as elements which shape my personal identity. In this "family-snooping" and personal introspection activity, I have realized that parts of my personal identity have been structured by my very own family which is shaped by the cultural values of my Irish ancestral roots. However, this cultural influence is not only limited to it but is also affected by the American cultural values. As part of the minority, even if now, I am considered as an American, this activity has allowed me to feel both being part of the minority group and the other. Likewise, my color has served as an advantage for the discrimination to be lessened. In terms of biases, I can say that the combined values from Irish and American cultures have made me more open about cultural differences. References: Clancy, P., Drudy, S., Lynch, K. & O'Dowd, L. (1995) eds. Irish society: Sociological perspectives. Communicaid Group, Ltd. (2011). Doing business in Ireland: Irish social and business culture. Retrieved from: http://www.communicaid.com/access/pdf/library/culture/doing-business-in/Doing_Business_in_Ireland.pdf Culture Crossing. (no date). Ireland. Retrieved from: http://www.culturecrossing.net/basics_business_student_details.php?Id=8&CID=100 Damen, L. (1987). Culture learning: The fifth dimension on the language classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Ignatiev, N. (1995). How the Irish became White. New YorkL Routledge, Chapman & Hall. Jensen, R. (2002). “No Irish need apply”: A myth of victimization. Journal of social history 36 (2): 405-429. Kroeber, A.L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions. Harvard University Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology Papers 47 Malinowski, B. (1944). A scientific theory of culture and others essays. The University of North Carolina Press. Taylor, L.J. (1995). Occasions of faith: An anthropology of Irish Catholics. Read More