Personal identity and Family Heritage

 Personal identity and Family Heritage

Part One- Argument for a claim of value connecting individual identity and family heritage.

Introduction

Apart from being the basic unit of one’s development level, a family is the base where each individual gets to learn, assimilate, and celebrate their heritage. Family plays a critical role in shaping one’s identity because it provides a framework of values, love, and support to every member of the unit. Learning and understanding personal cultural heritage helps one value their origin and has high levels of respect for the traditions practiced in society (Yun, & Silk, 2011). Family is the solitary most crucial inspiration in a child’s life because it provides a background for personal development and acts as a primary source of knowledge. This helps an individual develop high self-esteem because comprehending one’s origin, customs, beliefs, and values make them proud of their heritage.

Therefore, family heritage has got a substantial impact on how we carry ourselves, beginning from our levels of resiliency to determining our abilities to succeed. The most influential element to one’s identity is the family stories and tales that are transmitted either orally or in written form because they provide an idea of where we came from as well as how we fit into our families and the society at large (Murtagh et al. 2012).  As a citizen of Italy, my family taught me to celebrate my Italian heritage through the teachings, activities, and events that they offered me, which has become the fundamental definition of my identity. Italians share a universal culture, language, history, and common ancestry.

Supporting argument

As I was growing up, I still recall each narration that both my grandparents and parents gave me about my family heritage, especially our culture. According to academic scholars, culture affects personal identity because it provides one with the label for the group that an individual belongs to. Some of the essential elements that constitute the culture one descend from include family and society customs, traditions, language, norms, beliefs, and methods used by folks of the respective culture to interact with one another as well as other cultural backgrounds (Laing, & Frost, 2013). Considering that identity is discursive, it means that it is determined by the immediate environmental and social influence rather than being informed by biology. Understanding the traditions that are valued and practiced in a country or by an ethnic group is one way of embracing an individual’s origin because these traditions and beliefs are assimilated in our families, hence forming the primary cultures that exist in the unit.

For instance, in my Italian heritage, our holidays and traditions have a significant impact on how we define ourselves to the rest of the world because when you are an Italian, you have to attend and be part of a five-hour meal to commemorate BBQ day or otherwise known as labor day. Another tradition that has uniquely existed within my heritage is the connection of our religious rituals and holidays because, like any other Italian event, folks converge to eat, drink and have an incredible time with family and friends. Acknowledging, attending, and celebrating Italian holiday traditions is one of the ways that define our cultural heritage because one understands how, why, and when these events are marked (Kramer, 2011). All saint’s day or Ognissanti is one of the leading Italian holidays that is celebrated every November first to honor all the saints because Italy is a very catholic state.

December eight (Immacolata Concezione) is also another important day for Italians as we commemorate the day that Mary, the mother of Jesus, became pregnant through the holy spirit (Papacharissi, 2010). Other famous traditions that are dear to Italians include Natale, which is marked on December twenty-fifth, Santo Stefano celebrated on December twenty-sixth, Capodanno commemorated on January First, Epifania marked on January sixth, Festa della liberazione (liberation day) honored on April twenty-fifth and so on. These holidays and traditions frame the aspects we describe and associate ourselves with, hence forming a more significant portion of one’s identity. Language is the other element that makes one acquainted with his or her background as it defines one character (Murtagh et al. 2012). Most of the time, you will hear a person referring to someone by the language they speak, for instance, Latin.

Latin is one of the ancient languages that was spoken by Italic natives of the Latium territory in the center of Italy, and they possessed a shared sense of kinship, universal religious beliefs, and the acknowledged that all Latins originated from Latinus. The first impression a person gets about an individual on the first glitch is determined by their dressing code; that is why we Italians value our dressing because it brings out our identity. Italians are very sensitive to fashion even though there isn’t a formal dress code in the country, but fashion is considered an essential Italian culture because we also pay close attention to other people’s dress code. Food is also another component that contributes immensely to one’s identity because once you step into an Italian home, it is tough to miss Ragu Alla Bolognese regardless of domestic or international (Laing, & Frost, 2013).

Oppositions

As much as many scholars have tried to come up with many arguments with varied elaboration on the connection of family heritage and personal identity, Hume’s theory on own identity is the championed idea. According to Hume, identity is purely associated with strict numerical ono on one relation, and as he termed it ‘perfect identity.’ According to Hume, perfect identity holds between an object and a perception when that experience is unchanging and uninterrupted.

This implies that Hume would contend that a lot of the things on which we would usually assign a seamless personality are, in reality, flawed because the smallest modification would disturb our experience. Hume claims that gazing at one thing can never show us the concept of belonging, but only the idea of unification (Thiel, 2011). He states that in order to have an identification, individuals ought to have something to apply to themselves, they would also need an object similar to another object.

Conclusion

In general, the family environment plays a vital role in defining children’s identity as they mature into puberty and become adults. The manner in which family members respond to each other and behave together as a social group will influence the self-esteem, socialization, and cultural identity of a child. Understanding the traditions, customs, and beliefs that run deep within the family heritage helps individuals trace their origin, hence reestablishing their personalities based on them.

Part Two- Design a Dime

The creation and implementation of a suitable dress code for workers in the warehouse, automotive, and production jobs need high essence of criteria. Since their occupations can include corporal toil or operate in a hazardous setting, therefore, employees need comfy and quality clothes that not only permit them to do their grind effectively but also prevents them from risks associated with the job. They also need to function at the same time as specialists for staff, clients, and guests. Above all, clothes should be tidy, unwrinkled, safe and well kept as employees must avoid ripped, fragile and dirty clothes and everything with names, slogans or images that might be deliberated aggressive because none of this is ethical, and it does not establish a decent picture for any business.

Considering that most of the warehouse operations are hazardous, the setting requires safety apparatus such as steel-toed shoes, gloves, hard hats, safety glasses, and safety vests. In a warehouse, the uniform is not an essential aspect unless the organization is big enough that it requires to distinguish between an employee of one department from the other. However, dressing uniformly makes the workplace more presentable, but in my case, the clothing of the warehouse is as simple as a polo shirt that has a custom firm logo with grey pants. I acquired the polo shirt and the pants used in the costume from my closet because apart from being a polo fan, their fabric quality is top-notch. One of the critical objectives of proper clothing in the industry is to enhance safety and comfort, as this plays an essential role in promoting productivity. Wearing a hard hat is not an option in a warehouse because the risks of falling and swinging objects are quite high; hence one’s head should remain protected each second on duty.

Considering that I do not own a hard hat, but I have a connection with a friend who we once worked with at the warehouse before he joined another career, I borrowed his hard hat and safety glasses. From tiny objects, intense brightness from steel cutting or high dust particle in the workplace, safety glasses are essential as it protects one from these activities that could result in blindness or other related eye problems. Boots or steel-toed shoes are another important wear in the warehouse because they act as a protector to one’s feet from anything that might drop, causing accidents that could lead to loss of walking ability. As I had stated earlier, I used to work in a warehouse, so I own a pair of steel-toed shoes that are still in good working condition. The operations at this place are often fast but detailed, which requires individuals to have clothing that is visible from a distance to mitigate the risks of collusion or being hits by objects unware.

Safety vests, or otherwise known as reflective vests, are vital because it helps all the employees to identify each other quickly. I also owned a safety vest from my previous occupation together with another crucial attire in a warehouse, a pair of gloves. The number of substances that an employee at this place handles using their hands is not only corrosive but also dangerous to skin and might result in irritation, acquisition of severe skin problems, or other injuries such as being pierced by a nail. This is why gloves are needed to complete the most appropriate attire that is suitable for a warehouse because of the industrious activities it entails, as well as promoting safety.

Reference

Kramer, A. M. (2011). Kinship, affinity, and connectedness: Exploring the role of genealogy in personal lives. Sociology, 45(3), 379-395.

Laing, J., & Frost, W. (2013). Food, wine, culture, and heritage confirm identity. Two case studies of Italian diaspora festivals in regional Victoria. Tourism Analysis, 18(3), 323-334.

Murtagh, N., Gatersleben, B., & Uzzell, D. (2012). Self-identity threat and resistance to change: Evidence from regular travel behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(4), 318-326.

Papacharissi, Z. (Ed.). (2010). A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on social network sites. Routledge.

Thiel, U. (2011). The early modern subject: Self-consciousness and personal identity from Descartes to Hume. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Yun, D., & Silk, K. J. (2011). Social norms, self-identity, and attention to social comparison information in the context of exercise and healthy diet behavior. Health communication, 26(3), 275-285.