Cultural Autobiography: Cultural Processes, Influences, and Events
This is the instruction:
From an anthropological perspective, we are products of cultural influences that have shaped our lives. These influences may include race and class, kinship, gender and sexuality, power relations, school, globalization, individualism, capitalism and consumerism, politics and the state, violence, faith, our peers, television, and social media, school and work, the symbols that express what we find most meaningful (e.g., the cross, blue lions, red M’s, the golden arches and Bengal tigers), etc. As I think about my own life, kinship (my mom and grandparents, now long passed, my marriage, my long-distance relationship with my dad), growing up middle-class but without much cash, high school and small college football, way too much TV as a kid, childhood in Detroit and adolescence in small-town Michigan, being white and male, travel, a number of years spent in Gabon and Cameroon, and the teaching life come to mind. In our readings, we’ll encounter additional cultural influences: transnational communities, community-making through difference, zones of abandonment, hierarchy and inequality, property and people, forgetting and shared identity, poverty, youth culture, etc. Over the next few weeks, I’d like you to compose a 8-page (2000-2200 word) cultural autobiography (typed-double spaced, 12-pt font, one-inch margins, organized in part around what you perceive as a handful of key influences).
From Eric Maisel, Ph.D. The Creativity Book. (Tarcher/Putnam. 2000, pp. 9-10):
I’d like you to write a c.10-page autobiography. Your first thoughts are probably “That’s too hard” and “Why bother?” I’ve taught hundreds of adult re-entry college students; each wrote an autobiography and all were transformed in the process. Writing a 2500 to 3000-word autobiography is its own kind of creative act and looking back on one’s life is a revelatory experience. It can be hard work, intellectually taxing and emotionally draining, but its invaluable work and exactly the right kind of work to inaugurate our religion.
You might be wondering what exactly you’re supposed to write about. Just write your truth. Write about your family’s secrets and rules, what if felt like to have a stepfather appear, what messages you got about your worth and potential, what made you feel happy and what made you feel sad. Write chronologically or however you like.
[I’d to modify Maisel’s instructions slightly, in part because it’s a challenge to think of ourselves as “cultured beings.” As you write, try to be mindful of specific cultural influences or events that have shaped you, or that you’ve embraced: school, TV and entertainment, faith, family, summer vacations, friends, relationships, work, sports, events, travel, trauma and trouble, conflicts, soil media, particular individuals, race, class, gender, sexuality, mental health, COVID-19, etc. I encourage you to write your [culturally informed] truth, not to shy away from cultural contradictions we live.]
This is a cultural autobiography. Please consider what this might mean. Think about your own story anthropologically. What are a few of the cultural processes, influences, and events that have substantially shaped your life to date?
Analysis: Either within or at the end of your account, please reflect on how the novels we have read (Potok, Sanchez, Danticat) provide specific insights or perspectives that relate to (or significantly depart from) your own cultural experiences growing up and coming of age. Here, I want you to be able to cite specific themes that resonated for you and then to compare or contrast these with your own experience. Your analysis should be specifically linked to themes you discuss. You may also cite other course materials (films, etc.), but I’ll look for insights from the novels, especially Sanchez and Danticat. At the very least, you can write about how Julia and Sophie navigated their lives is less-than-ideal living circumstances. They also had important relationships with their parents, family members, and partners.
At the end of your narrative, add a brief anthropological reflection, perhaps considering why you chose the particular events/descriptions/stories you did and how are embedded in larger cultural processes.
Out of respect for your privacy, I will not share your individual stories in ways that would identify you. One purpose of this assignment is to enable you to consider specific cultural practices, processes, and influences that have shaped you and your agency-that is, (your capacity to act).
This assignment is hard to grade (I have no intention of grading your life.) But I’ll be looking for thoughtful, honest, well-constructed, well-written reflexive narratives that nonetheless point to key cultural influences that you’ve encountered along your path. A key component will be how you demonstrate the ability to make connections with course themes and readings. But above all, try to make this exercise useful for yourself.
No title page. Include your name, the section number and name, the date, and my name in the top left-hand corner. Please add a fitting title for your autobiographical narrative. Double-spaced. Insert page numbers. Upload to canvas as a word document (docx).
I think it just let me write the story based on my cultural background and consist the story. (Relate the cultural). My cultural background is the Asian male and you can literally write anythings in my cultural in here.
Cultural Autobiography
Student’s nameCourse name and numberInstructor’s nameDate
Cultural Autobiography
As a male from Southeast Asia with an Asian heritage, I was raised in my family’s traditional ways. Growing up, my life was greatly impacted by various cultural customs and practices that have had long-lasting effects on me. This autobiographical account reflects these experiences and how they have shaped who I am today and my control over me throughout life's twists and turns. The values upheld within our culture played an important role in defining my childhood and what it truly encompassed for me. Religion held great meaning, followed closely by behavior based on faith teachings that were so strict. Respect shown towards elders possessed significance not only while growing up but also in adulthood. My parents believed that education was the key to success, and they spared no effort in ensuring that my siblings and I received the best education possible. We were enrolled in some of the best schools in the region, and we were expected to excel academically.
Throughout my upbringing, I was constantly instilled with the value of hard work, discipline, and perseverance. These lessons stem from the daily tasks that we were entrusted with me to contribute towards managing the household chores. In my early teenage years, I participated in cooking meals, cleaning up the house, and running general errands around town. My parents believed that every child must account for some responsibilities, which fostered within me a committed work ethic alongside an unwavering sense of accountability that I continue to carry today. My ethnicity as an Asian man living amidst cultural norms defined by gender roles throughout society has also shaped how I view myself relative to others who identify differently than expected based on their sex characteristics. As a boy, I was taught I have inherent strength and independence, while girls remain emphasized for their tenderness and obedience. According to (Francis, 2004), gender roles were reinforced through the media, religion, and social norms, influencing how we interacted.
One aspect of my cultural upbringing centered on promoting social harmony and saving face. Criticism or public embarrassment was seen as impolite, leading to indirect communication practices that favored polite discourse. As I matured into adulthood, it emerged that certain cultural beliefs were putting a damper on my ability to act independently by limiting personal agency in areas where assertiveness was required but frowned upon due to this obsession with maintaining societal equilibrium in situations where unfair treatment occurred. Furthermore, strict gender roles inhibited me from expressing myself emotionally or revealing vulnerabilities truthfully - an issue commonly encountered among members of our community who would be perceived negatively for breaking set standards attributed largely to socially constructed ideas about masculine and feminine traits respectively assigned based purely on sex alone without considering individual preferences nor personality characteristics. In this case, my community needed to craft more inclusive policies reflective of physical body structures' differences between males/females and attitudes/beliefs/behaviors. Society must cultivate embracing diversity within individuals having passed criteria established via standardized testing procedures which aim to measure intellectual capacity regardless of background.
Nevertheless, I recognized that my cultural heritage bestowed a firm understanding of who I am and an innate sense of affinity towards those like-minded. The values of hard work, discipline, and perseverance have helped me succeed academically and professionally, and the emphasis on education has opened up opportunities that I might not have otherwise. Venturing into unfamiliar territories allowed me to gauge the intricacy trapped within human existences - exposing myself to alternative ways individuals perceive life while acknowledging how our indigenous traditions are one among many others coexisting beside us.
Upon becoming conscious of certain realizations, I scrutinized some previously unchallenged notions and predispositions instilled by my inherited cultural background. One such instance was the alteration of gender expectations conventionally inculcated within me; this compelled me to discover novel ways of conveying aspects regarding identity and sentiment. Similarly, I became aware of how straightforward communication coupled with assertiveness can prove beneficial under specific circumstances, even though it mandates questioning social standards or taking a chance on conflicts occurring as an outcome. If dealt with respect while working towards constructive ends, disagreements might incur beneficial effects.
Education
My culture values education, and academic triumphs are essential for success and upward mobility. From a tender age, my schooling centers always emphasized scholastic excellence. Recalling those days reminds me of long hours engrossed in studying materials to achieve good grades that would ultimately grant admission into prestigious learning institutions. Although it was often overwhelming due to its strenuous nature, this experience instilled an unyielding work ethic, discipline, and virtues that have proven invaluable throughout my life. As time progressed, while engaging along the intellectual pathways set before me by academia over these years, I had many chances to venture beyond traditional boundaries, typically around fields such as mathematics or linguistics. Instead, wider areas like literature, history, and social sciences became accessible frontiers ready for exploration. This opened up wider vistas through which understanding concerning various facets of our world could be incubated, resulting in becoming well-rounded individually-informed beings anchored firmly towards effecting meaningful change when called upon.
In conjunction with conventional scholastic undertakings, I was allowed to participate in additional pursuits that allowed me to cultivate multiple abilities and inclinations. To illustrate, I engaged myself in athletic teams, musical ensembles, and community initiatives. These adventures facilitated my growth by instilling leadership acumen within me, enabling acquaintanceship formation among others, and inspiring meaningful contributions toward society from my end. Upon reaching the culmination of secondary education tenure, where pivotal decisions relating to choosing an institution had to be made, numerous factors became relevant for consideration, including the cultural emphasis on highly esteemed varsities or personal interests requiring exploration. These factors are furthered by programs aligned while remaining true toward aspirations which ultimately led up until this point of the selection-making process unfolding itself upon us today.
Throughout my academic journey at the university level, I consistently sought intellectual and personal challenges that would push me beyond my comfort zone. My quest for growth led me to seek research endeavors, engage in student organizations, and contribute volunteer work toward community service initiatives. Through these diverse experiences over time, I was fortunate enough to attain a more profound understanding of myself aimed at recognizing how much influ...