Week 2: Concepts of Self and Other
Hello everyone! Welcome to the second installment in my blog. Whilst last week we mainly dealt with introductory proceedings and discussed the virtual calls. This week we will be tackling our first question. This question revolves around the concept of self and others, delving into issues such as what groups we experience ourselves and what we experience as others. By nature, this would immediately affect the way we thus perceive these groups. But before we get ahead of ourselves, I should first explain what I mean by self and others. This concepts refers to how we perceive ourselves and which groups we belong to and by extension, how our attitudes, behavior, roles and obligations differ based on these circles in which we identify ourselves. To begin, I personally identify as being both Arab and Muslim. I say Arab as I am both Emirati and Omani and therefore by being a member of both groups I increase the scope of my nationality. By identifying as either or I would, as a result, be referring to the other as a formal other. By being Arab I therefore experience Europeans, North-Americans, Asians, etc. as being a formal other. I do not feel any animosity or unfamiliarity with them, however I do not perceive them as being within my own group and therefore it forms a sort of dichotomy. By being Arab, I share certain things with people in my group. For example, tradition and culture is one thing. We all follow similar customs such as the same greetings, same holidays. However, I can not state that we share the same language as that is not something exclusive to us. By speaking Arabic, that does not automatically mean that someone is “Arab”, however it does become easier for them to assimilate into the culture for example. Thats where you can see a sort of blur between groups, you may share certain characteristics with a group, however that does not mean that you are a member of said group. To expand upon that further, I speak French for example. Whilst I am able to hold a conversation with fellow French-speakers, I do not consider myself French and therefore I view them as a plural other. So it gets a bit confusing!
Religion on the other hand is a bit easier to comprehend. I believe in Islam and therefore I experience being a Muslim as a self-experience and I fall into the Muslim group. Thus, I experience Christianity, Judaism, etc. as others and whilst respecting their beliefs and sharing some ideological similarities with the Judeo-Christian religions, I do not fall into their respective groups. To be identified as a Muslim is also clearer than the previous nationality example, I would state that to be recognized as part of this group you simply need to say the ‘Shahada’ which is the Muslim declaration of faith.
Above is the Muslim Declaration of Faith
Thank you all for tuning into this week's post! Leave any comments and questions below!
Khalid,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a really fascinating exploration of how religion and ethnic or national identities can play into our perceptions of self and other. It was interesting how you mentioned that a shared culture is a unifying force, whereas it’s not always the case with language, because from my point of view, language is something that can be learnt with a bit of effort, but it’s not easy or even possible to learn a culture and truly become a part of one that isn’t your own. I think that culture acting as a point of difference between different groups, is probably an example of othering that isn’t good or bad because I think cultural differences are important for a variety of reasons and these differences are not cause for concern.