Chapter 7: Importance of Identity and Ethnicity
1. Identity and Self | * Name an identity and that name or form of identification will always be associated with that person or personality * Many communities has naming rituals * Through naming, a group acknowledges a child’s birthright and establish the child’s social identity * With no name, the individual has no identity, no self * Self-awareness develops from childhood and socialization plays an important role * Important for successful socio-cultural and social functioning * Identify oneself as an individual creature * Assume responsibility * To construct and acquire identities – the social perspective is to always give consideration to the interaction between the individual and the social * Identity is not a static category * Continuous process and can more accurately be called identification * Identification anthropologists always refer to social identification * Identity refer to unique individual * Social identification has to do with which groups a person belong to, who he/she identifies with * Ways of identification gives a secure sense of belonging to a group | 2. Social and Group Identity | * Human beings spend a lot of time and energy “creating” themselves and others and formulating ideas about social identity * “Imagines Communities” describe how people identify themselves, and there are many such communities social, professional and ideological * People are increasingly discovering or developing their commonalities in a new kind of place “cyberspace” i.e. Facebook * Relatives and relations, kinship and friendship play an important role in the formation of different groupings and each implies a specific identity for the individual who is a member of such a group i.e. mother, father etc. * Titles in themselves are not of great importance * Important is the behavior associated with the title and the implied identity of