SOCIOLOGY

Sociology



Sociology

1. How do family traditions and cultural legacies contribute to and/or inhibit an individual's self-identity? What do you know about your family history?

When great grandparents immigrated to this great country, they had no intentions of losing their own sense of cultural background; however, with more and more American born generations occurring, after the initial immigration, a certain inevitable lost-ness happened. The next generation born in the new country came and something was removed, and then another generation came, and something more was removed, and then it became removed again, until a culture seems all but lost. In today's society, it is not uncommon to realize that cultural background (of all ethnicities) becomes more and more lost with growing technological advances, longing for material possessions, violence on the streets, and English serving as a primary Language. English sometimes causes new generations to lose their native tongue, which accounts for further loss in culture. Having said that, a culture does not have to be gone or lost; there are ways to preserve your culture, embrace your culture, and pass that culture on to future generations so that more cultural background is not lost, and the memories of our great grandparents will be preserved forever, and a sense of where we come from will be preserved forever.

The first thing is to want to know about your cultural background. You have to have a passion and interest when learning about it. But, it is my belief that knowing more about your traditions, ethnicity and cultural background brings much more happiness and less feeling of being lost. Second, no person should ever feel pressure of trying to define yourself when learning more about your cultural background. You define you and stand for what you want to stand for as an individual, not as an entire. Remember your aim in this is not to define what you stand for in terms of your culture and ethnicity; your aim in this is to know where you come from, why your traditions and language are important to your family and ethnicity, and to simply embrace those traditions, and pass them on to future generations in your culture. And those cultural traditions can be further carried on without feeling un-American. Knowing about yourself allows you to still be American, but still be proud of your cultural background, and that allows you to have peace within your own self.

Third, if you feel that you have no sense of culture, and then seek it by asking about your ethnicity and cultural traditions from your relatives. Even if you are more than one ethnicity, which is not uncommon in America, it is no problem, simply be proud of all and know that you carry many different parts of many different cultures with you. Your relatives have a past, and the relatives before those relatives have a past, so they have a lot to offer you about your background, especially if you are third or fourth generation American ...