One World, Many Cultures Essay Example

“Culture is the acquired pair of glasses through which we see life.” This quote comes from a conversation about culture that took place at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It emphasizes an important truth about culture - that it shapes the way individuals perceive the world around them. For individuals, cultural influences from family and other communities collide to form one's unique cultural identity. Cultural identity can be defined as the feeling of belonging to a group related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality, and any social group. 

There are many components that converge to form an individual’s cultural identity. Some key components that unite to form an individual’s cultural identity are names, language, clothing, food, and spiritual practices. In “What is Cultural Identity” by Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco the article states that “We all have unique identities that we develop within our cultures, but these identities are not fixed or static. This is the reason that stereotypes do not hold up: no two individuals from any culture are exactly alike” (Trumbull and Pacheco 10). There are many things that makeup how someone will identify themselves. This quote shows that we are all unique even if we identify from the same culture. In “By Any Other Name'' by Santha Rama Rau the text states. “Oh, my dears, those are much too hard for me. Suppose we give you pretty English names” (Rau 44). By saying this the headmistress is being quite disrespectful to Santha and Premila’s cultural identity. Furthermore, these children have not attended school in this way before so when they hear this they will begin to associate negative feelings with and resent school.

Cultural identities are complex and ever-changing. Cultures are always evolving and changed to conform to the “modern-day norms”. People often change to fit in due to the fear of being different, just like Wind-Wolf in “An Indian Father’s Plea'' by Robert Lake. In the text Wind-Wolf’s father writes a letter to his son’s teacher and says “Yesterday, for the third time in two weeks, he came home crying and said he wanted to have his hair cut. He said he doesn’t have any friends at school because they make fun of his long hair” (Lake 98). When reading this sentence it is easy to see that Wind-Wolf does not feel like he fits in. He wishes to change his culture so he does not get bullied at school. Bullying is something that almost everyone can relate to. Whether it is the way someone dresses, the food they eat, the way they look, all people have experienced some form of bullying. Although this may be true, some people will try to excuse their behavior, however, bullying is never acceptable. An example from my personal life on how cultural identities are complex and ever-changing is when I moved to Delaware nobody understood the way I said things it was hard to learn how to re-pronounce things I had grown up saying in what I thought was the normal way. 

Symbols can represent important aspects of one’s cultural identity. Cultural identity is what represents someone as a person. It is very important. It is the experiences that make everyone different and unique. In “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake Wind-Wolf’s father talks about how important cultural identity is to his tribe, saying, “He has attended the sacred and ancient White Deerskin Dance of his people and is well-acquainted with the cultures and languages of other tribes” (Lake 96). Also, in what is cultural identity by Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco says, “Individual cultural identity presents yet another layer of complexity. Members of the same culture vary widely in their beliefs and actions” (Trumbull and Pacheco 10). The message they are trying to get across to the reader in these statements is that a person's cultural identity can represent important aspects of themselves and that both practices and physical objects make a person their own. A symbol from my personal life that is important is music and fashion. America has a wide range of music and fashion. So growing up in that society there was a lot of room for creativity.   

In conclusion, as a concept, cultural identity includes the feeling of belonging to a group, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, generation, locality, and any other group. Cultural practices are always changing which means so is cultural identity. There are many elements and symbols that form someone's cultural identity. This quote sums up what cultural identity is: “Culture is the acquired pair of glasses through which we see life.” Everyone's perception of life will be different; many people will disagree with other's actions and characteristics. Since everyone's perception is different, cultural identity is special because it is how people define themselves.