Transcript Sources of Identity

Sources of Identity
SOC 30
How do we define ourselves?
Readings
As we work through the
lecture notes, read the
following sections in
your textbook and add
important information
to your notes.
Family
Culture
Government
SOC 30-2
Pg. 10-19
The Media
Gender
Sources
of
Identity
SOC 30-1
PG. 31-47
Language &
Ideology
Relationship
to Land
Religion &
Spirituality
Environment
Family
• Families have strong influences on the
ideological beliefs of children
– “Nature VS Nurture”
“Whatever its biological inheritance from its
parents and other ancestors, the child receives
also from them a heritage of attitudes,
sentiments, and ideals.” – Ernest Burgess
Family
• What impact does an
individual’s family have on his
or her beliefs and values?
• How much influence do you
think your parents’ ideas have
had on your own beliefs?
• Is it possible to explain how
two individuals from the same
family are often so different?
Gender
Man is the hunter; woman is his game…
Man for the field and woman for the hearth:
Man for the sword and for the needle she:
Man with the head and woman with the heart:
Man to command and woman to obey…
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
Gender
• Gender is understood in a variety of ways
– Personal
– Social
– Cultural
• Different cultures often assign specific gender
roles to their members
– What are some examples of negative effects of
gender roles?
– What are some examples of positive effects?
Gender: compare/contrast
Religion and/or Spirituality
• Without a doubt,
religion and/or
spirituality can be one
of the most driving
ideological forces in the
world
• Religion – primarily a
collective expression
• Spirituality – can be an
individual or collective
expression
• What common threads
exist between most of
the world’s faiths?
Religion and/or Spirituality
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain thhe whole
world, and lose his own soul? – The Bible, KJV
“A society without religion is like a vessel without a
compass” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and
myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought
in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the
religion which has regulated it can not be a bad one.” –
Thomas Jefferson
Religion
and/or
Spirituality
The Golden Rule
By: Norman Rockwell
Religion and/or Spirituality
• Which of your beliefs and values stem from
your religious background?
• To what extent do you think religion and/or
spirituality can influence an individual’s or a
group’s ideology?
Environment
• Climate concern has increasingly become a
concern to scientists and citizens throughout the
world
– Most scientists agree that humans are having an
effect on the environment
• Environmental awareness has a huge influence
on the lives of individuals
Environment
• Ideological changes influenced by
environmental concern:
– Reuse & Recycle
– Consumer behaviours
– “Green Politics”
• In what ways does environmental concern
shape people’s ideological beliefs?
Canadians have a special relationship with the
land
Relationship to Land
Relationship to Land
• Depending on your background and
profession, the land you live on holds a unique
significance
• For early Canadian farmers:
– “…free land, where a man might become rich
overnight, awaited their plows, a land of
temperate climate with the blessing of the
Chinook, luscious grass belly-high to a tall horse,
sod just waiting to be turned.” – Mrs. Ron Milne,
quoted in “The Lone Pine Story”
Relationship to Land
• For the Inuit:
– “The Great Land of the Inuit is the sea, the earth, the
moon, the sun, the sky and stars. The land and the sea
have no boundaries. It is not mine and it is not yours.
The supreme Being put it there and did not give it to
us. We were put there to be part of it and share it with
other beings, the birds, fish, animals, and plants.” –
Sam Metcalfe, quoted in “Report of the Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples”
• How would you describe the Inuit relationship
with the land?
Relationship to Land
• There is a clear and significant connection
between the environment and one’s
relationship to the land
– When one is threatened, the other suffers too
• Think critically:
– Canada has the largest freshwater supply in the
world, while other countries are increasingly
running out of water. What will this mean for
Canada in the future?
Language
• Language is key to shaping identities
– A common language and culture often unites people
• Majority language speakers are often unaware of
how powerful language shapes their identity
• Minority language speakers, however, struggle to
overcome linguistic assimilation (deliberate, or
incidental)
– Again, in Canada, language is a key part of
francophone identity, protected by the CORAF
Language
“French schools aim not only to meet students’
academic needs, but also to encourage the
exploration and integration of their francophone
heritage.” – Real Allard, Carole Essiembre, and
Sylvie Arsenau
Language
“How can cultural identity develop…where
obtaining services in (the) mother tongue is often
too exhausting, if not impossible? Francophone
schools in minority communities have a key role to
play in early childhood development, strengthening
cultural identity and protecting the French language
and culture. The education system alone cannot
solve all the problems of minorities. But without
such a system that ensures the transmission of
language and cultural values, minorities will be
doomed to assimilation.” – the Honourable Mria
Chaput (a Manitoban Senator)
Ideology
• Ideological perspectives play a key
role in influencing how people and
groups think
• For example: Emily Murphy
– In 1917, appointed as a judge in
Alberta
– Male lawyers argued that she was not
a person under the law
– Emily, along with five other women,
brought the government of Canada to
court to determine if women were
persons
Ideology
– The supreme court ruled that women
were not persons
– This ruling was overturned by the British
in 1929
“The world has never been partial to
thinking women – the wise ones have
always foreseen danger. Long years ago,
when women asked for an education, the
world cried out that it would never do. If
women learned to read it would distract
them from the real business of life which
was to make home happy for some good
man. – Nellie McClung
Ideology
• Take a moment, and think back to grade 9.
• What ideological beliefs are present in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
The Media
• What is it?
– All of the tools used to pass along information and
ideas
– Books, newspapers, magazines, radio, internet,
television, e-mail, CD’s, MP3’s, video games…
• Advertising Media
– Is the term used to describe all media that aims to sell
us a product
– The Media has a huge impact on how we see
ourselves
• For example: Do you believe women are portrayed
realistically by the media?
The Media: Marshall McCluhan
• This Edmontonian famously
coined the phrase: “The
medium is the message”
– The form of communication is
more important than the actual
content
• He predicted the rise of a global
village, made possible through
technology
– The media would then become a
collective experience, rather than
an individual one
The Media
• Can the media control a population? Yes.
– Evidenced by many totalitarian regimes
• For example: China censors most of what is available on
the internet
• Is objective media possible? No.
• What’s the worst that could happen?
– Establishment of hegemony – complete political
control (via the media) exerted by one group over
another
Government
• Rules and regulations implemented by
governments have a deep impact on the
collective identity of a nation
• Take, for example, the Canadian ideal of
multiculturalism (pluralism)
– 13.4% of our population is made up of visible
minorities (especially in places like Toronto)
– 85% of Canadians describe Canada as
multicultural
Government
• How do we see multiculturalism in Canada?
– Recognition of: languages, religion, and ethnicity of
different groups
– Official bilingualism
– Charter rights that prohibit discrimination
– Constitutional rights of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit
peoples
• What are the benefits and challenges of a
multicultural society?
• How do you think the multiculturalism has
affected Canadians?
Culture
• Culture is the combination of beliefs, practices
and social behaviors of a particular people
• The shared cultural experience of a group of
people will profoundly influence what
ideology that group chooses to adopt
• What can shape a culture?
Make a list/chart of no
more than 10 beliefs or
values that you consider to
be the most fundamental
aspects of your personal
identity.
Organize them in such a
way so that we can see
how they fit into the
factors that we discussed
in this chapter.
My Fundamental Beliefs
Apply Your
Learning
Religious
-I believe that life begins at
conception, thus abortion
should be illegal
Government
-I believe that democracy is the
best form of government
Environmental
-I believe that we are called to
be stewards of God’s creation