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Culture is extremely hard to define, as it is many things. It is communication, everything hand made, mental programming etc. Culture is a system of meanings as Geertz (1973) says that man is an animal that is suspended in a network of webs that he himself has spun and these webs are culture. Culture “is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture” (D. O’Neil, 2006, pg.1). Cultural identity is therefore hard to define as well. Dirvin (2010) says that Jonathan Friedman believed that cultural identity referred to a set of qualities to a given population, who act as cultural beings. He then adds that cultural identity is equivalent to ethnicity. Dervin (2010) believes that in Intercultural communication cultural identity often refers to a localized national culture, and that there is no such thing as a singular identity. Throughout this essay I will explore the cultural identity of my great Grandmother, Elsie Anderson. I will analyse specific intercultural communication theories and methods and then apply them to events in my great grandmothers life, in an attempt look at and discuss Elsie Anderson’s cultural identity. I will first start off by giving a quick background of Elsie Anderson’s life. I will then look at the theories and explore events in Elsie’s life, which relate to these Intercultural Communication theories. By the end of this essay I will be able to explore Elsie Anderson’s cultural identity. Elsie Anderson was born in 1907, in Taranaki, New Zealand. She was one of eleven children, and lived in rural New Zealand/Taranaki for her whole life. She came from a white, middle class, wealthy family who owned multiple farms in the Taranaki. She married the love of her life, at the young age of 19 years old to who she had two kids with. Her husband went to World War One and soon after returning died from a result of gas poisoning. Her Husbands brother then asked her to marry him as a gesture to look after her and the two kids, she said yes. Together they had one child, my grandmother, so Elsie now had three kids in total. But her new husband was an arsehole. He was a Blacksmith and alcoholic and beat her. It wasn’t long until they got divorced, which was a big thing in the 20th century. She then went and worked and looked after one of the family farms for the majority of

the rest of her life, which was extremely out of culture/out of the ordinary for woman at this time in New Zealand. Elsie Anderson experienced a lot of othering in her life. Othering according H. Johnsen (2010) is the objectifying of a person, or making them into an instrument or tool. Dervin (2010) believes that othering is another form of social representation, which is very much related to stereotypes. Except stereotypes still acknowledge them as person, othering only recognizes them as an object. Elsie was extremely othered because woman at the time were meant to stay in their homes looking after their kids, cooking and washing for the family etc. But here was this woman working in the same industry as men. She would drive tractors around, milk cows twice a day etc, carrying out activities that were considered very un-lady like. She was objectified as they thought that she should be at home tending to her family and husbands needs, not running a farm. Othering consists in “objectification of another person or group” (Dervin, 2010 p.7). These people judged and objectified her when they didn’t know her or her background. If they had known more about what she had gone through they might not have been so quick to objectify and prejudice against what she was doing. She was even othered by her family members, when she took on the responsibility of one of the family farms. As her brothers were able to buy the farms of their father when they were ready. But Elsie’s father never gave her this option even when she lived on it and ran it. She was never given the role of owner, only as caretaker. It was said that she was the first woman to work on a farm in the area and also to wear trousers. This added to the othering and objectifying of her, as ladies in the 20th century were meant to wear skirts. Dervin (2010) also says that othering allows individuals to construct sameness and differences and to therefore work out and claim their own identity. He goes on to say that othering is not just about the other, but can also be about the self. This means that through all this othering that Elsie received, it may have helped her to identify herself, and find her own identity. Which may have been the reason for her strong, ahead of time views and values.

“Values are judgements about right and wrong and good or bad. Values provide a framework for what is desirable and undesirable and serve as a motivational basis for behavior” (Oetzel, 2009, p. 6). Because of Elsie’s extreme values for her time she was othered against. This othering that Elsie experienced, steamed from an extreme sexist attitude within New Zealand’s society. One of the values of the Western society at the time was that, woman were meant to be stay at home wives, cooking and cleaning for their husbands, and looking after their children. There was absolutely no way a woman would be seen working on a farm, i.e. in the males industry, or wearing trousers what were considered to be males clothing as well. Elsie challenged this sexist societal value, in an attempt to break away from these masculine views. According to Oetzel (2009) beliefs, values and norms are the strong foundations for the observable behavior within a culture. Because Elsie’s beliefs and values against sexism were so strong she realized that it would be stupid to work on a farm while wearing a skirt. Even though it was against what woman whore at the time, her initiative and values told her it was right for her to wear trousers. And therefore go against the dominant societal masculine value of the time. Her values were different to the dominant Western societies. One of the values that Elsie expressed was feminism. She was a strong feminist, as she stood up for herself in a masculine surrounding. For example when she was being beaten up, by her husband she got a divorce. This was very uncommon during the 20th century. She was also known to swear and role her own cigarettes, an example of rebel like values. Woman back then would’ve never been seen rolling a cigarette, or heard swearing, it was considered extremely un-lady like. But according to Oetzel (2009), the people who othered Elsie can be justified, as he believes that when interpreting someone’s behavior we use our cultural values, beliefs and norms etc. to identify whether their behavior is good or bad. Because Elsie’s values and beliefs were out of the ordinary, society could only label what she was doing and how she was acting as bad. The fact that Elsie got married to her deceased husbands brother, who she wasn’t in love with was also a representation of the values of the time. They married as

Western societal values caused brothers to feel like they had a responsibility to take care of their deceased brother’s wife and kids. It was uncommon for couples to break up and get divorced, which shows she was ahead of her time, as it happens all the time now. It also shows her feminist values as she didn’t agree with the idea of staying married to someone you didn’t love who didn’t treat you equally. Elsie also displayed a Maori value. Because she took on the job of running one of the family farms she had to send her oldest daughter away to live with her Grandparents as she couldn’t manage looking after three children. This was often a Maori value, sending your oldest child away to live with grandparents, not a white, middle class value. Displaying values like this along side with her strong feminist attitude would have also added to her being othered and discriminated against. Lustig (2006) believes that ethnocentrism is when the beliefs, values, norms and practices of ones culture are considered superior to those of others. Ethnocentrism is therefore the uncritical belief that your own culture is superior. Ethnocentrism also leads to unfamiliar actions or behavior to be seen as abnormal, wrong or dangerous. Because Elsie displayed strong feminist values along with what would have been considered rebellious actions she was discriminated against. She was surrounded by ethnocentrists therefore what she did during her time was considered unfamiliar and wrong. Lustig (2006) says that our culture tells us that the way we were taught to behave is the right way to behave. And those who do things differently are wrong. Elsie’s values, actions and beliefs were seen as wrong by society. Bennett (2005) says that our initial response to difference is normally to avoid it. This resulted in Elsie becoming alienated and lonely. As my Mum would visit her for family holidays and every time they had to leave Elsie would cry. This was because society had placed her in an out-group. This brings me to the social identity theory, i.e. in-groups versus out-groups. According to Saul McLeod (2008) the social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group to boost their own self-group image. The in-group is the dominant group with the dominant cultural values and beliefs, they therefore other and discriminate against

people with different values and beliefs placing them in out-groups. According to Ting-Toomey (2010) the independent self-personality type involves the view that an individual is a unique entity, with individuated feelings and motives. Because Elsie was placed in an out-group she became an independent self-personality type. But at times she showed features of interdependency, as she would cry when her family left her house, implying that she wanted to be more in an in-group where she could connect with people or her family. She would also listen to the current pop music so that she would have something to talk to her grandchildren about, showing more interdependency features.

Dervin (2010) believes that cultural identity is hard to define, as it becomes a ‘slippery’ area. In Elsie’s later life she definitely moved to the cultural identity achievement stage. According to Lustig (2006) this is the third stage in the formation of ones cultural identity. At this stage they have a clear confident acceptance of themselves, and have developed ways of dealing with stereotypes and discrimination. Elsie was at this stage because she didn’t care what other people thought. She had battled through all the prejudice as she happily worked on the farm until she became too old to. Elsie Anderson was ahead of her time. She was against the masculine views of her time and therefore challenged them. She was a strong feminist in a masculine country, which resulted in her becoming othered against and placed in an out-group. She was a rural rebellious feminist surrounded by a bunch of ethnocentrists, which sadly caused her to become alienated for a large part of her life.

Reference list C, Geertz. (1973), The Interpretation Of Cultures: Basic Books: United States of America.

H. C. G. Johsen. (2010). Scientific Knowledge Through Involvement-How To Do Successful Othering. International journal of action research: Norway.

Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2006). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. M. J. Bennett, (2005), Intercultural Communication-A Current Perspective: Upper Saddle River

Oetzel, J.G. (2009). Intercultural communication: A layered approach. Boston, MA: Pearson. Ting-Toomey, S. (2010). Applying dimensional values in understanding intercultural communication. Communication Monographs. D, O’Neil. (2006). What is Culture? file:///Users/michaelvercoe-curtis/Desktop/Human%20Culture: %C2%A0%20What%20is%20Culture%3F.webarchive F, Dervin. (2010). Cultural identity, representation and othering: http://www.google.co.nz/search? client=safari&rls=en&q=Fred+Dervin+Cultural+identity&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&redir_esc=&ei=7M8qUN3BLs2ZiQf9-YAg

Saul McLeod, Social Identity Theory, (2008): http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html...