Aguayo 1

Kristopher Aguayo
Ms. Emily Ehrlich
English 131
January 23 2015
Time, Location, Culture, and Identity (Revised)

An Iranian family is getting ready for dinner. The wife and daughters
prepare the food while the Husband and sons sit patiently at the table. The
smell of pomegranate soup floats into the dining room and their mouths start
to water at the smell of one of their favorite dishes. A Mother then walks into
the dining room bringing in the succulent main dish as two little girls follows
behind her carrying sweet apricot juice. They place the food on the table,
settle, and sit. The children look towards their father, his stern face meets
their eyes and their faces smile with uncertainty. A stern look turns into a
warm smile and as he boasts in the name of Allah, they dig in. One of the
little girls mutters with joy as she fills her mouth with the sweet taste
pomegranate soup, Ash-e Anar is my most favorite meal in the world.
Pomegranate Soup, Ash-e Anar, or is part of her identity;
identity is a collection of ideas, beliefs, values, behaviors, and traits a person
has. Or in more abstract terminology identity is how we make sense of
ourselves. When this little girl says that her favorite dish is pomegranate
soup she is making sense of herself. She is stating that her fondness
ofpomegranate soup is one of the values she holds.

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If this little girl was raised in different section of the world, chances are
depending on where, her favorite meal would be different. In other words,
what she uses to make sense of herself is dependent on location. For
example if she was raised in a pueblo in Mexico, where pomegranates arent
part of the cultural landscape, then chances are this little girl would have
never tried Ash-e Anar. Therefore she could have never said Ash-e Anar
most favorite meal in the world. She wouldnt be able to make sense of
herself through the identification with Ash-e Anar, instead chances are this
little girl would have said Beans and tortillas are my favorite meal. In
addition, her father would have said In the name of Jesus Christ instead of
in the name of Allah. It can be noted that what someone uses to make
sense of themselves is a derivative of ones surrounding and reigning popular
culture.
Self includes everything that passes in consciousness, it follows that
what we pay attention to over time will shape the self (Mihaly
Csikzentmihalyi ,What is self ). In other words what we pay attention to will
form or become a part of our identity. For centuries the Neur people of Africa
have focused their attention on cattle. Their culture revolves around cattle;
their cattle are the heart and soul of their economy and families. They focus
their attention around raising them, create intimate relationships with them,
identify themselves by their numbers, and value them to the point where
selling them is taboo. This is a value that Neur people have, a value that

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forms part of their identity however this notion is goes far beyond identity
alone.
This high esteem for cattle is a cultural value; it is a part of their
culture. The idea that identity is derived by culture is entertained by these
notions. Because the people living in the Neur community are subject to the
Neur culture, their identity is pertinent to the same things their culture is.
Identity, culture, and location are intertwined; the combination produces how
we make sense of ourselves. Culture provided us with the values, traits,
beliefs and words for us to make sense of ourselves, in other words we are
selves are a derivative of culture and location.
Consider the little girl living in Iran; lets give her a name now, Alareen.
Alereen is now 18; she is married, is looking forward to bearing children, and
considers herself to be a good Muslim woman. Alereen identifies as Muslim,
she was exposed to Islam because of where she is located in the world, and
she gained her identity because of the influences and trends which
surrounded her growing up. In general, Alereen assimilated to what she saw
repeatedly as a child. She learned how live according to the Iranian genre.
As to why we learn to do assimilate, an explanation could be that our
amphibiousness is a survival tactic. In the study of linguistics it is noted that
immigrants often assimilate to a local cultures accent/tongue over time. For
example it was noted by a professor that her sister-in-law assimilated to the
southwest accent after moving there from Idaho. Many amphibians have

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morphism as s survival tactic; they change their physical appearance to fit

their surroundings in order to be less susceptible to predators. Humans do
the same but on a social scale. Even though the notion of human physical
morphism is amusing, our social morphism is more beneficiary. We are social
creatures, as so it seems understandable why we assimilate socially. We do
so to reduce attention to ourselves and in the process become less
susceptible to threatening situations.
In Catherine McDonalds Genres: Shapes of Meaning she states that
we grow up seeing specific behaviors in specific locations and that through
repetitive exposure the behaviors become a part of us. We eventually
assimilate and start presenting the same behaviors in those locations. In
other words we fall victim to the clichs we see and we ourselves become
one. This idea of genre doesnt just have pertinence to location; it also has it
towards individuals. Theyre certain acceptable ways of being/acting in front
of certain people, for example government officials, a family member, and or
a friend. These ways of being can change depending on body language,
behavior, actual language, and attire. Without even knowing it our person is
constantly hurdling genre after genre, assimilating to every social interaction
we face throughout the day. Ultimately our identity is changing along the
way. We learned how to do this at a very young age.
Genres are both very broad and very succinct; theyre big genres and
subgenres under major ones, and then more subgenre under subgenres.

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Alereens country has a broad genre which can also be described as referred
to as its culture. In Iran there is a list of beliefs, traits, and values the people
of the country have; there is an acceptable way of being. In part a culture is
also a genre. People will live according to what is socially acceptable. This big
cultural genre can also be broken down into subgenres. For example genre
can be viewed from a national scale or broken down to the genre of an
Iranian market, the genre in an Iranian temple, and the genre in an Iranian
store. These genres can also be broken down more to specific locations such
as the genre in a specific market, temple, and store.
There is a genre in Islamic countries with how women interact with
men. Alareen knows that there are acceptable ways to act around men.
Because she identifies herself, because she makes sense of herself, as a
good Muslim woman she doesnt talk to men outside of her family. She
knows that if she did, her behavior would be socially unacceptable. This is
how identity and genres correlate. How we behave is part of who we are
therefore it is a part of our identity. Alereen behaves according to the genre
of female interaction with strange men in Islamic Countries. Alereens
identity is correlated to the genre, in fact Alereens behavior is a derivative of
the genres around her and the culture is part of is a directive of the location
she inhabits.
In Culture and Identity, Simon Clarke brings up the idea that the self is
an effect of a performance, the way in which we present ourselves in

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everyday life (Simon Clarke, Culture an Identity). He suggests that our

identity has to do with how we act in everyday life. This supports the idea
that genre has pertinence to identity. How we act depends on the social
situation (genre) we are in, therefore our self in the process is affected.
The constructs of genres are dependent on culture. Culture means a
collection of traits, morals, and beliefs shared by a group of people. Consider
the wide variety of cultural diversity we have on our tiny blue planet of ours.
Now consider the possibility that each culture has its broad cultural genre
which splits into subgenre after subgenre. For example in Alereens Iranian
culture, it is deemed socially unacceptable for a woman to be seen in public
without covering her face. For Alereen the genre of being in public means
that she wears a Niqab to cover her face. But in the alternate universe where
Alereen is South African and her name is Kayla (the most popular female
names in South Africa), the genre of being in public means she can show her
face. Notice how not only dress style changes, but her name also changes.
This furthers on the idea that identity is a derivative of culture.
The reigning culture in her country of Iran is, like stated before, an
Islamic one. The people in her society abide by Muslim culture and try to
follow the rules of Islam. Because of this the socially acceptable ways of
being are very dependent on the dominant culture. Identity is dependent on
the dominant culture.

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We identify based on the genre and culture we are exposed two, both
are dependent on location. However there is another factor that one must
consider and that is time. Culture is always changing. Consider your beliefs,
now consider your parents beliefs. Each generation has a slightly different
culture and genres pertinent to it. Theyre alterations because culture isnt
constant. We are selves are not constant and because we create culture,
culture is also not constant.
A good representation of the values in the culture of a time period can
be derived from the advertisement in circulation. The baby boomer
generation who grew up in the 1960s for example. Many of the
advertisements in that period represented the patriarchal values. Some of
them promoted sexism and strict gender roles. Big yellow litters with
remarks such as is it always illegal to kill a woman?, keep her in her
place, and from a Carls Jr advertisement a woman should never leave the
kitchen. It can be noted from these statements that the cultural values and
ideas in this time period where quiet sexist. Because of these undertones, it
can be predicted that the genres also had similar undertones, this in fact is
true.
In the work force women where considered to be less capable than
their male counterparts, therefore they were treated at a lower standard.
This reinforced repetition and exposure to socially acceptable ways of being
for men and women. This created women who acted in manner that also

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promoted the sexist undertones in their culture. These sexist values, because
identity is a derivative of culture, became a part of the baby boomer ideas as
well. This is explains why it became acceptable during the 1960s to use
sexism as an attention grabber in advertising.
Flash forward to the twenty first century. Today, although sexist
undertones are still present, they are at a smaller scale. The millennial
generation is slowly creating a more welcoming culture for women. Our
values no longer linger so heavily around sexist undertones. As result the
genres established previously have changed. For example in the
advertisement genre, it is no longer acceptable to blatantly advertise sexism.
This leaves the inferring thought that the culture no longer has strong sexist
values; therefore the current millennial generation doesnt have them either.
This explains why theyre less sexist undertones in modern day genres, and
people have less sexist undertones in their identity.
Identity isnt simplistic. Its a derivative of the mixture of culture,
location, and time a person is present in. As a final example reconsider
Alereen. If Alereen had been born in the United States, chances are she
would identify as American. Chances are she would identify as Christian, and
chances would be that her favorite meal would be a Hamburger and her
favorite beverage would be a latte. Her entire identity would change. But
thats implying she was present in modern times, if she was born in a
different time period for example in the 1960s her identity (the values,

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traits, beliefs, and ideas that help her make sense of her person) would have
contrasting differences.
In the function of identity one could say that the variables that make it
include time, location, and culture. As weve seen, Alereens identity would
change drastically if one of the variables was altercated. In a universe were
everything is constant and predictable, here we are defying it. Heraclitus
once wrote The only thing that is contestant is change. A more recent
philosopher, Aldous Huxley, wrote The only completely consistent people
are dead, this is because only in death our person is not affected by time,
location, and culture.