Topic: Family Composition
Source: When I was in first grade, I remember one of my teachers assigned us a project that involved trying to draw your whole family on a big poster.
Relation: In Chapter 5 of Robbins the author discusses the patterns of family relations. We learned about the family compositions of three peoples: the Ju/wasi, the Trobriand Islanders, and the rural Chinese. We examined the structure and dynamics of family life among these cultures.
Description: My first grade teacher assigned us a project that would help my class share their own families with everyone. For the project we were given a big white poster and then we had to creatively put everyone in our family that we could think of on it. This included the nuclear family and also my mom and my dad's side of the family as well. I remember sitting at home with this big white poster in front of me and I had no clue where to start. I started with my nuclear family first. I used blue marker to color everyone in my own family. I wanted to make a clear separation in both sides of family so I used green marker for my dad's side and red for my mom's side. My nuclear family consists of my mom, dad, and older brother. I then moved onto drawing each side of my family. My mom had to help me because I did not know all of my aunt's and uncle's yet. Once I was done with both sides of the family I took a moment, stepped back and admired all the work I just put in.
Commentary/Analysis: I feel that my family composition is a very unique one. My mother's heritage consists of half Hispanic, Irish, and a little Argentinian. My dad's side consists or Norwegian, Finish, and German. In my nuclear family my mother looks very dark skinned and so does my brother. My dad is more lighter skinned and that is where I believe I got most of my looks. When I grew up I always found it fascinating that when I went and visited my family on my mom's side, all of them are really dark skinned and Hispanic. Their culture is very different then my dad's side of the family. My mom's side tends to be more outgoing and be louder. My dad's side tends to be more conservative and more modest. We would go out to dinner with all of my cousins and my dad and I would be the only light skinned people there. I found it really interesting that when surrounded by all of my family on that side of the family I stood out as different because I was lighter skinned. Now on the other hand when we would go and visit my dad's side of the family, most of my family members there are lighter skinned. My brother and mom tend to be the only darker skinned people when we all get together. Lastly, one of the things that has fascinated me the most about my family composition is how I am lighter skinned and my brother darker skinned. It really baffles me because I do not really look like my brother at all but we have the same parents.
It's really interesting to read about different people's family compositions. I think that it's great you have two such different backgrounds; it must make for fun discussion with others. My family is from all over the place so I know what it's like to feel like you look nothing like your siblings! Nice post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, I really enjoyed reading about the different cultures amongst your family, I'm Hispanic myself so its interesting to hear about my own culture coming together with different cultures who are very different from the Hispanic culture, like you said your moms side is more outgoing and your dad side is more conservative. I think its pretty awesome to be a well rounded person and experience variety.
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