2014 is the 75th anniversary of the classic film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. One of the most important themes and dialog of this film is “there’s no place like home. ” The main character, Dorothy Gale, is magically transported to a different land after a traumatic experience involving a cruel woman and her little dog. While in this new land, called Oz, her mission is to find a wizard to get her back home. After adventures in this new land, she finds out she always had the ability to go home, she just needed to chant and click here heels together.
Upon her “arrival” back at her family’s farmhouse in Kansas she relays her experience of this different land and her happiness of being home. The very last line of the movie, said by Dorothy, is “there’s no place like home. ” What is “home? ” For Dorothy Gale, it was a culmination of physical and emotional ties. Even Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “home” as “a place where something normally or naturally lives or is located. ” Many people define their cultures through their identities, including Basques.
The concept of identity is a hard one because it’s shaped by who we surrounded by, including family relations, political context, geographic and historical factors. Therefore, identity could be divided in two three modules, such as individual, group and universal; those are the intersectionality of culture that shape it’s identity. For instance, taking a look at the Basque culture and the way that they defined themselves. Some say that Basques defined them selves by their language, while other say Basque defined them selves by their heritage.
Either way the idea of identity is a matter of epistemology, which is how we know what we know as a society and as a culture. In support, Christine E. Sleeter, a president of the National Association for Multicultural Education wrote The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies has stated, “As ethnic studies matured, epistemologies have been developed around the most significant ways to understand and address the concerns of historically marginalized communities” (Pg. ).
This shows that epistemology could be seen as a theory of knowledge and how cultures, subcultures and communities use their knowledge. Theories are also lenses to make to direct our attention to the issues that we have in the society such as ethics Stanley A. Deetz who wrote book that is titled: Democracy of an Age of Corporate Colonization argues that we, as humans, form meanings to the world. Thus, ethics are part of the moral principles to identities and cultures.
Deetz in chapter five of the his book, which is Language and the Politics of Experiences sends the message of the way of experiencing reality is through communicating with others. However, some times the term of communication is being un-understood which what starts messing up moral principles to identities and cultures. For example, some in school or workplace frequently tend to ask “Where are you form? ,” “What language do you speak? ,” or even “Who are you? ” Those types of questions attempt to categorize our relationship with others, which is what had happened to many cultures including Basques.
Another example, is the artist Nikki S. Lee; well-known person in the art world; some of her work can be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Guggenheim, Metropolitan Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution Cleveland Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Her work consists of her changing her identity in order to fit into a variety of subcultures. In todays generation there are many people who judge others or negatively stereotype them based on their external looks.
We are even starting shift the way that we describe our selves; instead of saying I am honest or I am smart we describing our selves based on racial or ethic groups. However, Lee’s projects address the issues of ethic and identity. Ethics are very important to be thought in school and universities. Through ethic courses people could be more educated and through becoming an educators, we can start forming useful meanings to the world.
According to Sleeter: Well-designed and well-taught ethnic studies curricula have positive academic and social outcomes for students and that curricula are esigned and taught somewhat differently depending on the ethnic composition of the students and the subsequent experiences they bring. These positive findings should not be interpreted, however, as meaning that schools can assign any teacher an ethnic studies curriculum to teach, or that students of color will automatically achieve more if ethnic content is added to the curriculum. Overall, The concept of the identity is part of the concept to ethics, which is a complex one.
Many cultures, subcultures and communities have lost their identity because they don’t know enough about their ethics and how it’s formed by their adaptation to their home. Many Basques don’t their Basques until they take ethic classes because of their dissimulation. Some Basques moved to another country and had to let go to their culture, identity and heritage; but there are some that they had to acculturation, which is part of integration. Although, through education and encouraging ethic and classes, cultural identities can come back and people can start building their own road of ethic, identity and culture.
