Personal Identity: A Cultural Analysis

Culture is defined by shared beliefs, customs, values, country of origin, and institutions relative to a group of people. However, culture not only encompasses objectives of shared traditions, geography, and religions, it also includes shared concepts such as gender, cognitive processes, and various types of interpersonal relationships that are deemed as highly relevant to the majority of a group (Baruth & Manning, 2012). Because of the fluidity of culture, people can be identified by a multitude of intersecting cultural aspects to represent themselves as a whole. The manner in which I identity myself with cultures is not of any difference compared to what is noted above. My identity is defined as a 21-year old female of Nigerian descent currently

living in the Southern region of the United States of America. In alignment with the multifaceted concept of culture, my identity is also composed of additional tangible aspects of culture including my religion, as well as intangible concepts, such as my social cognition and socioeconomic status.
Although the definition and descriptions of culture are flexible, culture in terms of my ancestry and family customs have mounted a significant influence on my identity. Current information of which I am aware of traces my cultural roots and heritage to the country of Nigeria, located in West Africa. Both my mother and father were born and reared in Nigeria. As young adults, they emigrated from Nigeria to the United States of America to pursue higher education. My parents, although from the same country, also grew up in slightly different environments. As a child, my mother’s environment was set in a small village where she grew up as the oldest child out of nine children. Within the more urban area of Nigeria, my dad spent his childhood and adolescence growing up with his nine siblings. There were many similarities among my parents’ family structure and having a large family likely incited their collectivistic approach toward others. For example, some messages regarding collectivism that I picked up from my culture, both implicit and explicit, included helping your siblings when needed, greeting and treating elders with deference, and pursuing an academically “ideal” goal of achievement. Overall, my family’s culture exerted some influence on my life (i.e., striving for academic prosperity) but of only a small fraction.
Though much information so far has explicated the details of my family’s background, the effect that my ancestry has propelled upon my identity development still requires a good amount of recognition.

There is still an abounding amount of respect I have for the collectivistic attitude and customs of my culture, however, as an individual the majority of my culture’s customs do not parallel my identity. Many people may often think that within a cultural group that people are similar, but there is often greater variability within a culture than outside of a culture (Ormrod, 2008). For example, I consider myself a perfect example of deviating from the norm in my family culture, especially from my parents’ customs. While growing up as a child, at some point in my life I noticed that I cherished independence. Even though I was soft spoken, sensitive, and secretive, qualities of which are counter to my culture, I was and still am an adventurer. My parents often seemed isolated within the immediate family and around a few friends, but I always desired the exploration of new people and being socially adept. In terms of my identity, the longing to branch out and explore beyond my immediate environment always reflected through my dream-like attitude. I wanted more social stimulation beyond the small rural Southern town in which I lived, and the addition of my family’s stick-to-ourselves attitude did not sit well with

me.
Another important part of my cultural identity is my religion.

As a Christian, I grew up practicing Catholicism. Although I was reared in the Catholic Church by my parents, I always felt that I had a deep, personal connection with Catholicism as if I choose this religion on my own. My cognizance of the emotional connection that I have with praying, and my reverence for traditional practices such as Confessions, paralleled with my sensitive and soft-hearted personality. My spiritually and belief in a higher power, God, informs how I view and live in the world. Whenever people become unworthy of my trust, are undependable, try to bring havoc upon my innocence or politeness, or blatantly attempt to exploit my feelings with their misunderstandings, practices of my religion such as prayer and meditation are an outlet in which I am able to feel secure and peaceful. However, there are moments that I get angry or put myself in situations that may be wrong for me, but part of my religious identity is about being comfortable to uplift myself whenever I tend to stray away from sources that align with my

faith.
My religious identity not only energizes me to use religious practices as an outlet for my emotions, but it also provides an opportunity for fellowship with others who are and are not Catholic. There are many people who may not understand Catholicism, but diverse religions do not matter to me because those who are religious share the purpose of serving and connecting with a higher power. Also, messages that I learned from my religious identity concerned mainly the differences Catholicism has with other religions that I encounter in the South. As a Nigerian American who practices Catholicism, my religion seemed like an anomaly, especially to many African Americans from the South, since most African Americans in the South are not Catholic. It was not a problem for me to be different, but again, there is more variability within cultures than outside of cultures (Ormrod, 2008).
By now, I comprehended that religion is a huge cultural aspect of my identity, but my gender also plays a significant role in my life. I was born as a female, and reared as a female in accordance to the gender specific materials that I was given. Even though I grew up as a child playing with stereotypical toys, such as Barbies, tea table sets, and baby dolls, I loved those toys. In fact, society does tailor such toys as gender specific for girls, but for me I really enjoyed those toys and had no real interest playing with stereotypical toys for buys such as mud trucks. However, society sends salient messages that girls should not really play with mud trucks, but a toy is a toy and such gender specific toys need not matter. I may not have enjoyed mud trucks, but I certainly enjoyed playing videogames that society would deem most boys to enjoy.