Chapter One, Two and Chapter Three Discussion:
Class, I would like each of you to post a scenario of enculturation that you have experienced. To review, the process of enculturation is the process by which you learn the culture into which you were born. For example, your grandma is German and migrated here in the 1940's. When you spend time with her, she cooks German meals, speaks German to other friends of hers, and talks about life back during WWII.
Your comment should only be one paragraph long.
Here is mine:
My 4 grandparents were Polish, and all moved here before WWII. While they have all passed on, I have learned to play polkas on my violin at a very early age. I went through extensive cooking instruction of how to cook in the Polish culture, and even speak some Polish. I have extended this onto my daughter and she loves dumplings in chicken soup as well as other cultural food from Poland that I know how to prepare.
After almost 24 years, I finally know the culture that I came from. My father's side consists of French Canadian, Scottish and Irish. On my mom's side, there is Native American, French and Finnish. My two grandfathers passed away before I was the age of four, so I was never able to learn from them where their parents came from and other stories. One grandmother passed several years ago, and the other surviving grandmother doesn't exactly have contact with me. So fortunately my parents were able to share my background heritage to some extent, but I was not raised with any culture specifics. I'm going to get my daughter's father's culture history from him in order to teach her from a young age what mix she comes from. As far as preparing cultural food, I know how to make French toast, if that counts? :)
ReplyDeleteMy maternal grandfather was British, and regardless of whether it was 10 or 110 degrees, he always had an extremely hot cup of tea. When I was in high school, I became slightly obsessed with the British. My friends and I were crazy about the British band Duran Duran. I loved to hear his accent which he of course, exaggerated. He unfortunately was very prejudice, I am not sure if this was because he was British or just the way he was raised. He sadly instilled this in my mother and this is something that I still battle in myself. Fortunately my son has none of my families prejudices. My paternal great grandmother was Belgian and my great grandfather was from Spain; he died before I was born. My great grandmother was a wonderful kind woman who would always bake for the family and
ReplyDeleteshe would knit scarves, hats and mittens for my aunt's kindergarten students who didn't have them.
My background on my fathers side is Swedish. My great-great grandfather Otto arrived in this country around 1900. He was a barrel maker and cabinet maker. Wood working has always been an important thing with the men in my family. I carried on the tradition by being a cabinet maker for a time myself. Although the path to get there was a rocky one at best. I hope to pass on my love of wood working to my son so this tradition can continue for another generation.
ReplyDeleteMy maternal great-grandparents came to the U.S. from Ireland in the late 1800s as teens. My maternal grandparents were both Boston Irish and kept to the clan so to speak.
ReplyDeleteMy paternal side (Arnold) came in 1635, basically marrying to British or Irish decent (I'm sure with some exceptions) but classifying themselves as British.
My parents, my siblings, and I joke about some of our tempers and affinity for alcohol. We do have a family gathering on St. Patrick's Day, but other than that my family really identifies with being American.