The Concept of Cultural Identity and Power Essay - 275 Words

The Concept of Cultural Identity and Power (Other (Not Listed) Sample) Content: The Concept of Cultural Identity and Powerby Students NameCourse Code + TitleInstructorInstitutionCity, StateDateIntroduction The concepts of culture, cultural identity and the power relations are rather integrated concepts in life. Culture is basically the way of life of people. People usually identify themselves with particular culture of their community. It is worth noting that cultural values are usually inherited and passed from one generation to the other. However, some cultural practices get eroded and abandoned over the years due to many factors. For instance, urbanization and industrialization are some of the major contributing factors to the erosion of the indigenous cultural values. Further, westernization has seen many people abandoning their original cultural values, and adopting the western cultures. The developing countries, especially those in Africa and Latin America as well as some Asian countries, have a high tendency of adopting the western culture . However, as we shall see, the importance attached to cultural identity cannot be underestimated. There is need for all people to be proud of and nurture their culture. This helps to bring harmony among the community as people will occasionally come together to celebrate and remind themselves of their culture.My Personal Account of Identity and Difference I was born in an Australian middle class family during the second generation where I was raised and taught about the Muslim Heritage. When I was a teenager, my parents migrated to Australia where I have now found myself caught up between two cultural identities of White European and Middle Eastern. Associating with European culture will likely make people see me as an Arab. Growing in a multicultural diversity has motivated me in studying sociology and focusing deeply on the cultural aspects. We shall look at various examples involving the Middleton identity and Giles, including those involving Muslims in the Middle Eastern. The Question of Cultural Identity and Diaspora A critical review of an article by Hall reflects deeply on the concept of culture and cultural identity. Hall defines cultural identity as the shared cultural values in a community. Culture is collectively shared among all the members of a community (Mirzoeff, 2000). It is shared by individuals with similar cultural codes and the same historical experiences. According to Hall, some hidden histories played important part in developing the anti-racist and anti-social movements. The rediscovered culture plays a vital role in moving the community sturdily and clearly towards a common goal. The rediscovered hidden culture influences the cultural identity and creates a sense of belonging (Braziel Mannur, 2003). However, despite the many significant differences in cultural identities, there also exist numerous differences that depend on and define our nature clearly. There exists a paradox with regard to the above two perceptions of cultural ide ntity and heritage. This can be clearly identified when we look at the uprooting and transportation of African slaves to the Caribbean. Here, the slaves are made to work on the Western world plantations where they mingle with different religions and languages. This separates the slaves from their original cultures and they are forced to adopt new cultures. Inaccessibility to the indigenous culture robs such people of their valued cultural identity, throwing them in a state of confusion. Consequently, such people are left with no alternative but to bury themselves haphazardly in the foreign cultural identity (Braziel Mannur, 2003).Marginality as Site of Resistance Hooks in his article talks about how some people such as the slaves are subjected to marginalization and harsh treatment. Marginality simply means being part of, but outside the body. He gives the example of the black Americans who lived in Kentucky town as a major remainder of marginality. These people could hardly eat pe acefully and could not look directly to some peoples faces. They could supposedly enter a world but could hardly reside there, and were rather forced out to the railway tracks and in the town edges. Further, these black Americans could not be allowed to take their food in certain restaurants as a law existed that regulated their movement and spelled the punishment to be applied upon violation of such laws. This continued oppression went along way in building the solidarity and sense of oneness of the oppressed. They were able to gradually transcend above poverty, despair, and the oppression (Braziel, Mannur, 2003). They no longer had to act as prostitutes, janitors, and maids because their awareness of existence of whole universe with one main body had grown significantly. In order to make it through, the colonized, the exploited, and the oppressed have to understand the place and position of resistance and marginality. This will help to eradicate and avoid the build-up of despai r, nihilism, and hopelessness. It will also relieve them of the state of pain and deprivation that have engulfed them for so long. Hooks also notes that the freedom of expression only comes to those who put up a spirited fight against colonization. Margins are therefore sites of repression, resistance, and deprivation, though unfortunately most people are often silenct once it reaches the point of speaking about margin as a resistance site. There is also a high need for those living in marginal space to speak about the existing difference. The margins should therefore be understood to be a marginal space and not a domination site. Genuine liberation for the oppressed will come when people see things differently, regardless of whether they will differ from the forces that try to silence them (Totoricaguena, 2007). Williams also seeks to give his views about the concept of culture. He first describes the original meaning of culture as cultura, which basically means to cultivate, hon our, protect inhabit or worship. Among other aspects described in this article are democracy, ideology, media and mediation as well as medieval. Notably, there once existed an era of hostility for cultural which was mainly anti-German; the same hostility is associated with aesthetic or aesthete, as well as the English culture, which dates back to the time of Arnolds views. Yet some other cultural practices have never experienced hostility, including entertainment and popular art as well as high arts and refinement, which exhibits superior knowledge (Barker, 2004). This hostility has, however, diminished with the steady anthropological and social use cultural formations including sub-cultures. Further, the concept of culturalism, used recently, contrasts sharply with structuralism thereby bypassing hostility The concept of ideology is also explained in this article by Hook. It has its origin in 1796, having first being used by philosopher Taylor from France. He described ideology a s a philosophy of the mind. Ideology is therefore the science of ideas and must be distinguished from metaphysics. Napoleon Bonaparte modernized its meaning by attacking the enlightenment principles as ideology. Socialism, on the other hand, is the struggle ideology, developed spontaneously by those in proletarian class. It is based on capitalist relations and on human knowledge and science. There exist bourgeois ideology and proletarian ideology. Each is deemed to be progressive and correct when compared and contrasted with another ideology. Media is the other word commonly associated with culture. It is mainly found in communications and is closely related with media people, media studies, and media agencies. The media is also commonly used for advertisement in newspapers as well as in the broadcasting service. Medium has a technical sense that specifically determines its properties ad primary purposes (Warren, 2011). Mediation basically means reconciliation and has got both soc ial and political sense. It is applied while bringing together some warring parties and in peacekeeping. Bennet sees culture as comprising multiple stakeholders, whereby people exhibit divergent contradictory values. For instance, some practices may give people the right of hunting the native animals. Most cultural representations in a country emanate from legal struggles and are achieved overtime (Anderson, 2009). All the values that have some secondary sources are in fact the source of a countrys knowledge, including its treatment guidelines and cartography. Many cultural varieties and aspects are also identified and include among others mass culture, folk culture, popular culture...