How do family traditions and cultural legacies contribute to and/or inhibit an individual’s self-identity?Traditions and cultural legacies has always been a thing of the pass going to our future. Families study the form of traditions for many years. It’s in insight in to what is our pass and to what may become our future. Families have worked hard to keep this a alive in each one of the generations that is coming up behind them.
Traditions and cultural legacies has been the idea was of identify our family history. It allows us to know just who we are and where we come from. This paper is going to be a look on how do family traditions and cultural legacies contribute to and/or inhibit an individual’s self-identity? The important of this paper will show how most people will use tradition of some sort to identity their self as one persona and as a family. Identifying ones identity can come form many life’s experiences.
Many things make up your self-identity such as you looks, your ethnicity background, your personal relationships with other people, just you life all in one. When identifying ones identity it can be said that how people view you it can add to ones self-identity. Family traditions and cultural legacies can leave an impression on how the family comes together and do things that has been a part of their life for many years. In author states in our text, “family traditions are meant to be the culture of one’s family household and their way of values, ideals, beliefs, practices, attitudes, sentiments and ideas.
This is the environment that they sub-consciously deal with to work through everyday life”. (James & Merickel, 2012). Traditions are usually made or inherited for the matriarch of the family. Cultural legacies have been passed down form many generations to generations. Your ancestors put forth the motion to create something safe and secure for your families to cherish as the family grows. Traditions and cultural legacies could mean a number of things.
There are many different types of traditions that people use today. It could be the family tradition whereas the family might do a family function every year. It could also be an occupational family tradition where ones family member worked as or on a certain type of job. A good example of this would be where a farther following in the footsteps of his farther as a Doctor. He passes the tradition down to his kids wanting and encouraging their kids to become doctors as well.
There are many types of traditions that people live by. The important of traditions and cultural legacies provide many different out looks. One would be the source of finding your family identity. Family identity is very important to have. Everyone should have that sense of knowing who and where they came from.
By doing so this allows you to share the history with your love ones and have that understanding of why your tradition is epic to your family. Tradition is like sharing that family bond. It brings people close together as a hold and as a family. In the article Creating a Positive Family Culture: The Importance of Establishing Family Traditions states “Traditions provide an all-too-rare chance for face-to-face interaction, help family members get to know and trust each other more intimately, and create a bond that comes from feeling that one is part of something unique and special”. (Mckay, 2013). Tradition has a lot of meaning behind it and families trust in that alone.
A cultural legacy also teaches us values. Both tradition and cultural legacies are very much in comparison with each other. Both instilled the vales of education, faith in God, love and many more. It all links together in connect our family together and the legacy that lives in in us.
Each generation have a time point of important that one can speak on. Having tradition gives us that sense of what right and the safeness of what family stand for. The fact that this can be done will help create a long-lasting set of memories that will live in the heart of family forever. As you can see there are an out number of factors that makes the self-identity of an individual.
In addition to having family traditions, culture is a main reason to finding self-identity. As a child growing up you’re surround among family and friends. Personal values come from what we are taught as children. Our parents wants was best for their kids so they teaches us the values of respect, honor, and beliefs. I was always told be careful of you environment and watch the company you keep.
If you enter into a negative surrounding this could affect ones self-esteem. A person’s identity can involve person trade such as looks, beliefs and fears. A person’s identity may not always stay the same. It can be much to change from the person itself; however people have many ways and choices of choosing the source of their identity.
As a child I use I grew up with a family tradition and a cultural legacy. My family has a tradition that we pull names every year around Christmas time. We have a certain day and time every year that we meet up and pull names for gifts. This has been a tradition for many years in our family. Because of the concisely of what our family has did, it has trickle down for many generations.
The cultural side of our family is that we are church Pentecostal. My grandparents and their parents before them all were raise to be Pentecostal. Everyone in our family from many generations has been under the serves of Pentecostal. Don’t get me wrong we all serve the same God, but it’s just a different way of serving him. Pentecostal has been a part of my life every sense I was born.
My mother has all always kept me in the church. Every day I use to complain about going to church and why was it so important to go. After I got older it became very clear to me that being Pentecostal or any other type of region was to be close to God. It was a safe haven too many and it was important to know just how much we was loved by God. Having his holy spirit was truly the only way to eternal life.
Traditions and Cultural legacies are important in many ways and only your belief in them makes the differences on how you receive it.
