Culture is defined as “learned patterns of behavior and attitudes by a group of people” (Martin & Nakayama). As I stated in my concept application blog, I chose the culture group “brothers” for my Cultural Reporter Project. This group is part of the familial identity. Familial identity is “the sense of self as always connected to family and others” (Martin & Nakayama, 2012). Familial identity stressed the importance of the emotional connections with others and also the interdependence with others. Understanding the idea of “familial self” may be connected to others and be bounded by a situation according to Martin and Nakayama.
I was unable to record my interviews with the two people I talked to because they were uncomfortable with the idea of that. They are pretty private people, as neither of them have Facebook, Twitter, or any other form of social media accounts. But, they were willing to answer my questions for this blog. I also got quite a bit of observation in and learned a lot.
Through observations, I saw how close these two brothers are even though they are so far apart in age. One of my observations took place at a restaurant. They were eating after a long day of work. I also observed them at the younger brother’s home. I concluded that these two brothers talk about anything and everything whether they are in public or in the privacy of their home. They talked about everything including work, family stuff, the different tv shows they watch, movies they’ve seen recently, and even their co-workers. I thought it was interesting that they talked about all these things no matter where they were. That just goes to show how comfortable they are with each other and how close they are.
When I asked them “how close do you feel your relationship as brothers is?” they both said it was a very close relationship. One lives in Colorado, but when he has to come here for work, he stays with his brother instead of in a hotel somewhere. When I asked “when I say the word ‘brother’ what comes to your mind?” The older brother said that he feels a brother is someone who should protect his siblings. Since he is the older brother, his point of view was a little different than his younger brother’s perception. The younger brother said he feels a brother should be someone that his siblings can go to when they need something. He also felt that a brother should have his sibling’s back no matter the circumstances. I asked if they ever thought of “brothers” as a culture and they were both quiet for a while. After they thought about the question, both said they neither thought of it that way, but agreed it made sense to look at it like that.
I learned a lot about these two and their culture as brothers through my observations, spending time with the two of them, and through my interviews with them. I liked their different perspectives on this topic and how they see things.
References
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2012.). Intercultural communications in contexts (6th ed). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
"DEAN BRODY - BROTHERS - HD - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., 17 June 2010. Web. 13 Apr. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZPratuGg28>.
From the sound of these two their relationship may not be the average brother like relationship. It is very rare to see someone who has absolutely no social media, and feels comfortable speaking to someone but not enough to be quoted. Could be interesting I will follow.
ReplyDelete