Culture And Cultural Identity

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Cultural Identity Identity is an abstract, multifaceted concept, which plays of an essential role in intercultural communication interactions, because of globalization and diversity around the world. In this paper I will describe the basic types of identity, such as human, social, and personal. Today people are forced to adapt to the dynamic and constantly changing every day life; thus, identity is becoming an important factor in how they live and with whom they associate. The importance of forming of identity pointed by Samovar, “According to Pinney, a principal objective of one’s adolescent years is the formation of an identity, and “those who fail to achieve a secure identity are faced with identity confusion, a lack of clarity …show more content…

Racial identity is based to a biological heritage with similar physical and anthropological characteristics. Ethnic identity is occurring from a shared heritage, history, traditions, values, similar behaviors, area of origin, and language. Gender identity refers to how the particular culture differentiates masculine and feminine social roles. Ting-Toomey determines gender identity as " the meaning and interpretations we hold concerning our self-images and expected other-images of femaleness and maleness"(Samovar 218). National identity refers to our nationality. But national identity can also be acquired by immigration and naturalization. Regional identity tied to different geographical regions, and often these regions reflect varying cultural traits. The cultural contrasts among these regions may be manifested through ethnicity, language, accent, dialect, customs, food, dress or different historical and political legacies. Organizational identity can be an important in some cultures as a source of identity, especially in collectivistic cultures, like the Japanese, but far less so in individualistic cultures, like in the United States. Cyber and fantasy identity tied to the internet, which allows to quickly get to know someone, and select and promote what they consider positive features of their identity and omit the negative elements, or even construct entirely new identities. According to Suler, the Internet provides opportunity to escape the constraints of everyday identities and offers to people to present themselves to a different way (Samovar

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