Tabarak Abdulhussein

English 210
Major Project four
How does the political circumstances of a country affect the
cultural identity of its citizens?

Table of content
Introduction
Culture

Identity

page 3

page 3

page 3

Cultural identity and politics

page 4

Conclusion

page 4

Survey results
Appendix

page 4

Introduction
One of the topics that I am passionate about the most is the question of identity. Not any identity
but cultural identity. There are different forces that influence the cultural identity of an
individual. However, from personal experiences, I have found that politics is one of the strong
forces that can affect cultural identity. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to figure out how
can the political circumstances of a country affect the cultural identity of its citizens.

Culture

When asked about the definition of culture, many people stumble because it is very difficult to
define an intangible concept. Personally, I think that culture is about doing things that define
who you are that are also done by other people. According to John Littlefield (Archaeologist at
Texas A&M Qatar) culture is a way people self identify themselves as groups usually ethnically.
On the other hand, Silvia Pessoa (English Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Qatar) defines
culture as a concept that encompasses many things: your national identity, language, traditions,
customs, food, ways of being and ways of life. From the three definitions of culture, two
important concepts arise; identity and groups.

Identity

Identity is simply who you are (Silvia Pesso). However, many philosophers question the
creation of identity. How is identity constructed? And what are the ingredients behind this
creation? One of the most important philosophical questions that arise is if whether identity
something that you are born with or is it socially constructed? According to the Danish
philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, existentialism is defined as an idea that human beings are born with
some certain characteristics but also construct an identity by the decisions they make. As a result, it
seems that identity is a scale that measures two components. One component is the weight of the
human beings born characteristics while the other is the influence of the outside environment.
According to the theory of existentialism, identity is equally
balanced between the two components of personal
characteristics and the outside environment. However, Pesso
thinks that identity is very much deeply rooted in a social
construction. The social construction that Pesso mentions
includes various variables. The web of identity shown on
the right shows these variables. The reason why I have
called them variables is because their weight or influence
on identity varies from person to person according to the
context of their outside environment. For example, Gender
plays a heavy role on the identity of individuals who are
raised under a sexiest environment. From personal
observations, the education and the career choices of these
people are heavily influenced by gender roles. Roles that
their society have created. Personally, my identity has been
influenced by two variables; culture and politics.
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Cultural identity and politics

Cultural identity is like a scale. I believe that it measures how much belonged you feel to your
native set of practices and beliefs. One of the variables that have affected my cultural identity is
politics. I have moved out of my country when I was less then five years old. Reasons are due to
the lack of civil engineering jobs for my father. Following my departure in two to three years, my
country became politically instable. Until now, I have only visited it once for a week where we
were locked in my grandmothers house for safety reasons.

The role that media has played in reflecting the political instability of my country has only been
negative, while my parents are still trying to engrave a positive image. Therefore, a sense of
ambivalence was always felt. Moving into six different schools where each had its own culture
had created a further confusion.

The question of this report is How does the political circumstances of a country affect the
cultural identity of its citizens? The purpose of this report is not to study any type of citizens,
but citizens who are third culture kids who have left their country due to its political instability.
As a result, a survey monkey was sent to the students of TAMUQ to investigate this topic further.

Survey results

The target audience of the survey monkey is non-Qataris where thirty-two responses in total
were received. The numerical results of the survey truly reflect on the effects of being a third
culture kid who has left her or his country for political reasons. First, 60% of the survey
respondents come from a country that it politically unstable. Therefore the results show that
47% of these respondents havent visited their country during its political instability.

The whole purpose of this report is to show how can the political circumstances of a country
affect its citizens. The research shows that the identity of the citizens is affected negatively
throughout the fact that 55% of the survey respondents feel alienated from their native culture.
That is, I believe, is the most important statistic gathered from the survey.
At the end of the survey monkey, I have decided to add a comment box where I asked the
respondents how they feel about their cultural identity. The two most compelling responses
received are I feel that it is meaningless because no one recognizes Syrian passports nowadays.
It is so hard with VISA's and traveling.. , I am completely and utterly lost. I usually don't even
answer the "Where are you from?" question when i meet new people
Conclusion

The conclusion of this project is made up from a set of interlinked questions. One of the
questions is what about the kids of today? There are thousands of Syrian refugees including
children and teenagers who are trying to get into various countries including Turkey. According
to John D. Littlefield, the Syrians seem to be accepted into Turkey by papers, but in reality they
are not being treated well. How will this generation feel about their cultural identity during the
process of growing up under these circumstances? Will they feel a sense of prejudice against
their country? Or will they feel even more belonged, culturally rich and patriotic as they see their
country oppressed?
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Appendix
Interview questions
Dr. Silvia Passo
1- How can you define culture?
I think culture is a concept that encompasses many things: your national identity, language,
traditions, customs, food, ways of being and ways of life.
2- What do you think is the definition of identity?

Its about who you are, how you want others to see you, and what others expect of you.

3- Do you think that you can choose your own identify or is it socially constructed?
I think its both but its very much deeply rooted in a social construction.

4- How can you define cultural identity? How is one considered having a strong or weak
cultural identity?
I think it has to be do with affiliation, belonging, and sense of differentiating yourself from a
global identity: whether you have a sense of affiliation or belonging to a particular culture, place,
country and no matter how global you are, you still identify with that culture.
5- Do you agree with the following statement; the political circumstances of a country
strongly impact the cultural identity of its citizens --- if so, how do you think so?

I think it has some sort of influence. If the conditions of your country are stable, you are most
likely to feel a sense of affiliation to that country. On the other hand, if the country is not very
stable, you may want to distance yourself more and more from that culture. At the same time,
the lack of stability in the country make cause you to be more patriotic and thus more attached to
it.
6- What do you think about third culture kids?

I think they are very common around the world now and parents have the responsibility to instill
in them their own culture.
7- What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a third culture kid who is
foreigner because of her countrys political instability?

Advantages: you find a more stable, safe, and probably economically advantageous place to live
in the world. You become more culturally aware, more open minded, and more knowledgeable
about different cultures and ways of lives, interacting with people of different cultures becomes a
norm and not something out of the ordinary which in my view is very good.
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Disadvantages: Life may never be normal again, but again, whats normal these days?
Interview questions
John D. Littlefield
1- How can you define culture?
I see culture as a way people self identify themselves as groups usually ethnically.

2- What do you think is the definition of identity?

Family background, religion, interest --- more combined together to create the individual
identity.

3- Do you think that you can choose your own identify or is it socially constructed?
Personal level= more choice than dictated
On a cultural level= more dictated than personal
4- How can you define cultural identity?
Stated above

5- How is one considered having a strong or weak cultural identity?

That judgment only going to be made internally by the people of the culture, it would be very
difficult for outsiders to make that judgment.
6- Do you agree with the following statement; the political circumstances of a country
strongly impact the cultural identity of its citizens --- if so, how do you think so?

Absolutely, the most obvious way is to see that by example, for Americans for instance, during
the last presidential period (before Obama), travelling for Americans was a little more difficult,
because the Bush years were seen so negative to the rest of the world. Likewise, I would say that
Iranian citizens would experienced difficulty travelling, like prejudice-7- What do you think about third culture kids?

8- What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a third culture kid who is
foreigner because of her countrys political instability?
Syrian refugees going to Turkey, on paper they seemed very welcomed, but by experience,
acceptance would be challenging and starting new lives would be challenging. New families
fostered, Turkish Greek exchange in the 1920s, You become a culture within itself.. if you are
moving around, your cultural identity might be more focused on the smaller group. Loss of
cultural heritage, loss essence of global position,