Just in front of us, behind the curtains of prejudice, exists an unexplored dimension of perspectives and beliefs. New ways to perceive and understand the world.
I am Diego Concha
🚀 Welcome to my space!
đź“ś About this Website
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Identity emerges from within yourself.
It's a reflection about how you think people perceive you.
🧑 What is Identity?
How do I define it in my Social Context?
The complexity of identity is something I hadn’t considered until I started this course…
Who am I? It’s a simple question that I feel like I’ve never responded properly.
I would say I’m many things; I’m a student, I’m Chilean, I’m a brother, I’m a son, etcetera…
But these traits are not suitable enough to define one’s self, what truly defines you is what sets you apart from the rest, what the people around observe and say about you, and how this reflects on your own perception of yourself. The moments of our lives that mark us. And the decisions we make that ripple through time and greatly influence the way we interact and think about people and the world.
Under this line of reasoning, I would argue that one of the events that defined my childhood was the divorce of my parents due to domestic violence. This caused me to become a very untrusting person which has caused a huge ripple through my entire life, making it difficult for me to make friends or interact with new people.
The fact that I avoided social interaction for so long makes it hard for me to define my identity, because I always felt like an outcast and that became my whole identity. Now that I’ve noticed this behavior is detrimental to my mental health and have found people with similar interests in college, I’ve started to make friends and notice what they say and find interesting about me.
In the past, some of my classmates in college have said that I’m weird and impatient, so I try to be calmer and learn about what they value in a friendship. People also find it interesting how skilled I am with technology. I often get asked questions about computers and for help with any technology related problems they encounter. After all, my first and current job is to work as a computer technician in my free time.
People around me greatly influence my identity through the reflection I make on the way they perceive me. That’s how Identity constantly evolves, making it possible for individuals to fit and interact accordingly with others in their own cultural and social context.
Learning the culture that surrounds you is fundamental to properly interact with people and understand the world around you.
🌎 What is Culture?
Culture is not something we are born with, it’s something we learn through experience, and thus may be hard to recognize and define. A good way of understanding the concept is by comparing traditions and beliefs from different places.
I picked two diverse traditional festivities in order to compare the aspects of culture present in them and have a better understanding of the concept of culture.
One foreign festivity that I investigated is the Hajj, a Muslim religious festivity that takes place in Mecca, a city in Saudi Arabia. This festivity lasts for a period of five to six days, but the date of the Hajj changes every year due to the Islamic calendar being eleven days shorter than the Gregorian calendar. During this week, millions of Muslims begin their pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a cube shaped structure referred to as the "house of god". Followers make the pilgrimages to perform a series of symbolic religious rituals as a demonstration of solidarity and submission to their god.
I will be comparing this foreign tradition with “La Fiesta de la Tirana”, a traditional Christian festivity celebrated in northern Chile created by Aymara miners that worked in copper and silver mines. It was originally linked to the Virgin of Copacabana, but in the 19th century it was transformed by Chilean saltpeter miners to worship the Virgin of Carmen. This festival is celebrated with many traditional dances. One of these dances is the “Diabladas”, a native Bolivian dance that involves colorful suits and masks which represents their god. The dances utilize fast and dynamic movements. Another dance is the “Morenos” which represents the suffering of slaves from native tribes that were forced to work as miners.
While comparing some aspects of culture in these festivities, we can see that they share some features in terms of religion. An example of this is their goal of expressing devotion towards some form of God. On the other hand, they differ in the form of art used to achieve this. While the Muslim people that participate in the Hajj perform strict and demanding rituals, the people that take part on the “Fiesta de la Tirana” express their beliefs through the music and many styles of dancing. Not only strictly expressing their religion, but also recognizing the native tribes’ traditions and beliefs. Also, another key difference between these traditions is the social class structure. While the Hajj is exclusively performed and celebrated by the Muslims, the Tirana turns out to be a very inclusive festivity, where people from all social groups can express themselves through the art and enjoy the music and dances.
Through the experience of comparing these two traditions we can realize what the key aspects of culture are, and how to identify these elements that lie within social activities in order to properly differentiate, describe and learn cultural features of a society.
Digital Culture
We live in the era of hyperconnectivity, we are one click away from anyone and anywhere. That's why it's no surprise how easy it is to connect with people from all over the world. From a very young age, I had access to the internet, and I quickly learned how to get involved in communities about the topic I was interested in. At the time, I started to get interested in videogames, so I joined gaming communities. Given the international nature of these communities, there's a high cultural syncretism and inclusivity. There's an ever-evolving flow of ideas and opinions that make the digital cultures very dynamic and fast-evolving.
I developed an interest in foreign cultures and languages, so I decided to learn enough English to communicate with people from all around the globe. To this date, I keep friendships with people from almost every continent, so I'm constantly learning about new cultures and ideas.
I would argue that joining a culture is more relevant than being born into one. Deciding to join a culture means you feel identified with the people within it, and you feel comfortable and happy to share their ideas and beliefs. Meanwhile, being born into a culture can sometimes be difficult because once you begin to question the ideas and customs that are tied to it you may not agree with them and be conflicted.
How can we define these terms?
Both of these terms are social constructs used as a means of grouping people. That’s why I think it’s common for people to get confused between them.
The key difference between them lies in their judging criteria. Race categorizes individuals by their physical traits. Whereas ethnicity classifies persons based on their cultural background.
I firmly believe that race is a very narrow and ambiguous term, since there’s a high chance that an individual doesn’t fit the description of any racial group. This may be due to belonging to different groups originating from different parts of the world or simply not resembling any set of physical characteristics attributed to a specific group.
On the other hand, grouping people by their ethnic background is broader and not as vague since it’s easier for a person to identify with cultural expressions. This allows people to easily associate themselves or others with the elements of culture linked to an ethnic group, such as traditions, language, nationality, religion, etcetera.
Nowadays, with so many people traveling and migrating around the globe it’s very common to see people from different places. Sadly, some people are quick to judge and because they are used to interacting with only people “like them”, they can’t tolerate being around different people and start blaming them for their own problems. This is known as racism, and is one of the main problems regarding the classification of people by their race. In Chile it’s usual to see minorities of black immigrants being treated offensively by racist people who believe that they can be hierarchized and prejudged. And thus believe that they are allowed to oppress any racial group that’s “under theirs”.
I think that it’s our duty to identify racism and help people recognize their prejudice and teach them about different cultures and how to interact with people from different racial/ethnic groups.
Thanks for visiting!