Understanding Culture and Identity

Who am I?

There is no fine line to describe an individuals identity. There are so many different factors that come into play when we think about who we are, or who others think we are. Culture is just one of the defining factors of our individual identity. Although, culture is a big umbrella over our identity that is also made up of so many different aspects. An individuals culture determines how they communicate and interact with other people. There are three different perspectives on identity and communication: Social Science, Interpretive, and Critical ( Martin and Nakayama, 2013). The social perspective is the belief that an individuals identity is created by self by relating to different groups of people. It emphasizes a collectivist notion of self (Min Sun Kim, 2002). Collectivists value group goals more so than individual goals. They have a strong sense of familial identity which allows for people to be emotionally connected with one another and also allows for them to have a sense of reliance on another person. The other person would also be benefiting from the reliance. It might best be considered an "alliance" between 2 or more people. Another aspect that the social perspective emphasizes is spiritual identity that is learned through experiences with people and the belief of higher meanings in life. The interpretive perspective is an identify formed through the social interactions with others. By interacting with others and getting a sense of their identity, we can reinforce or create our own identity. Sometimes we take simple attributes of someone else's identity and make it a part of our own without even realizing it. The last perspective is the critical perspective. This perspective calls on past events to explain different identities. Such as what has happened in the past in terms of history, economics, politics, and discourse. People can be placed in a specific identity just by communicating their past to other people.

Besides culture there are many other aspects that make up our identity, such as: social, gender, sexual, age, racial, ethnic, religious, class, national, and regional just to name a few. Each one of these identity categories has its own unique make-up, just like each one of us. There are no set guidelines or regulations within each category. Although a persons culture might have an effect on how they view each category. Being female for example is viewed as power in some cultures, whereas in others being female is in viewed as inferior. Sometimes it is hard to completely understand different cultures. That is why intercultural communication can also be hard to understand, but yet it is so important in our world today. Everyone doesn't necessarily need to know all the aspects of someones culture to be able to effectively communicate with them, they just need to be aware of differences in each of the identity categories. I think that having an open mind and willingness to listen are also important aspects of intercultural communication.

  A current event that ties socio-cultural identities and intercultural communication together is the conflict in Syria. Syria is a very diverse country with many different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The two main ethnic backgrounds are the Sunni Arabs and Alawites. Although there are many others. Since Syria is run by an Alawite government that many of the Arabs don't believe in due to different beliefs and cultural backgrounds there is a clash of socio-cultural identities. This conflict proves that even people with the same national and regional identity can still be so different from each other. The Alawite government didn't even try to communicate with the Arab protesters before brutally murdering them. Once that happened there was no stopping the backlash of angry citizens. If the government would have tried to communicate with the protesters the conflict may never have started. There definitely needs to be improvement between intercultural communication not only in Syria itself, but also in surrounding countries, and in nearly all countries of the world. My best advice is to listen. Sometimes people just act on their first instinct before really knowing why they are doing it.

References

Martin, J.N, and Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural Communication In Contexts (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill

Memmott, M (2013, September 3). 2 Million Syrians are Now Refugees and More 'On the Way'. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/03/218471534/2-million-syrians-are-now-refugees-and-more-are-on-the-way?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130903

Fisher, M. (2013). 9 Questions About Syria you were too Embarrassed to Ask. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/29/9-questions-about-syria-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/