Cultural Background Summary

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Cultural Background Summary A person’s identity is unique and has a foundation of various sources. These sources will be different for every person, ranging from a person’s upbringing to a person’s religion. This paper will define cultural background and examine the multiple sources that make up my own personal cultural background that helped mold me into the woman I am today. Furthermore, the paper will speculate on the extent to which my current identity has been affected by assimilation, multiculturalism and pluralism. Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior. It includes ideas, values, and artifacts of groups of people (Schaefer, 2006). Understanding culture can be tricky, ever ask “why do people act the way they do?”, “what made me do that”, “what was I thinking?” Physical abilities, educational background, and social background of how I was raised are important aspects of my life. The environment in which I was raised is very important aspect of my life. I am proud to say I am an African American…a Black woman! My parents are African American. Both of my parents grew up in small rural towns in Kentucky. I was raised in a single parent household by my mother. I am my mother’s only child; however my father has a total of six children. I have a strong kinship network in my immediate family. Even though I was not raised around my father, I always say God blessed me with 3 uncles who have been and still are like fathers to me. Being the only niece for the first 11 years of my life, I am also everyone’s daughter. Some people say I am spoiled. I love to say I am Blessed! The small town of Madisonville, KY where I grew up provided very little to no diversity. Kentucky is Southern commonwealth state located in the Eastern Central part of the United States. According to the 2009
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