Cultural Roots

Culture is represented by a shared (learned) system of meanings or ideas shaping what people perceive, think, feel and do (language, beliefs, values). When discussing cultural roots it is important to ask how do the numerous cultures and subcultures we belong to shape our lives? Paramount to this question is one's own sense of "reality" or what is "real". How do we think about or make sense of the world? Therefore, learning about our ancestral heritage and cultural roots gives insight into our unique sense of reality and ultimately defines our cultural identity.

Each side of my family has contributed countless cultural beliefs and values to my identity, but for the sake of space I will highlight the significant few that have shaped my perception of the world the greatest.

My mother's cultural roots stem from a great grandfather from Wales who migrated to the United States in the mid 1800s and settled in Gulfport, Mississippi where he became a small business owner. His business prospered and eventually he made enough money to purchase a large plantation in Tennessee (which is still in the family and used for family holidays) where he continued to run a family business. The family was heavily involved in the Methodist Church. Two generations later their grandson, my grandfather Hugh McCullough, attended Georgia Tech and graduated as the valedictorian of his class. He started several small businesses that failed before finally succeeding in the automotive supply industry. He was a certified genius who "wasn't afraid of hard work or to tackle new things", and he was substantially learned in politics and the economy; prompting him to invest heavily in Coca Cola, Home Depot, and General Electric prior to their financial booms.

Under my grandfather's household my mother grew up in a traditional middle class family with a stay at home mom. Kids were respectful of their elders - "seen but not heard" - and she does not remember ever being asked for her opinion on family matters even when her less intellectually gifted brothers were. She was the valedictorian of her high school and her class at West Georgia when studying both accounting and nursing school, so it's clear that this lack of democratic decision making based on a patriarchal hierarchy significantly influenced her growth. I understand now why she has always been the financial adviser for my family as well as given everyone, even me from a young age, some say in household matters.

In addition to a democratic family structure my mother has also instilled significant Christian values and beliefs into me. The Methodist Church has been at the center of daily life since the beginnings of her cultural heritage in America, and every Sunday during my lifetime was spent going to Church and then
spending time with the family. Through my life as a teenager Christian principles have been paramount to the way I've made sense of the world, and only since I've been at Reinhardt have I begun to perceive the world not as an outsider's perspective with cultural egoism but rather using a cultural realist's perspective of seeing the world as an insider before making judgments or even determining my own ideologies based off of these new experiences.

My cultural roots do not end with my mother's Christian democracy however. My father, James Lucian Baker, is the son of James L Baker Jr, who is the son of James L Baker Sr (notice the trend of James Baker's...including me!) James L Baker Jr was the twin brother of my great uncle Charles K Baker Sr, who along with his stories and ancestry.com provide the last details of this side of my family beyond my father's generation. James and Charles were the son of Nannie E Becker who was the daughter of Cherles Otto Becker. He immigrated from Germany sometime in the latter 1880s and married an American women named Sarah Jane Burnham. In census records, Charles Otto Becker frequently changed where he was from, sometimes saying he was born in New York, sometimes West Virginia, and according to family stories sometimes Russia. However, upon reviewing ancestry.com it appears Charles actually listed he was from Prussia on his final change of birthplace.

This is significant because Prussia was a military based absolute monarchy, and James L Baker Sr, Jr, and uncle Charles all served in the US Navy during their lifetimes. This patriotic and ultimately order based lifestyle passed down to my father who joined the police force before joining the Georgia Bureau of Investigation drug trafficking unit. Upon learning about my father's cultural heritage it is not surprising that I grew up in a highly patriotic and orderly household. "No wrong ever makes a right" has always been my father's mantra, and when I was arrested in Athens, Georgia for under age drinking you would have thought my Dad was told I had murdered someone. Growing up under the guidance of my father, it isn't surprising that my cultural identity is shaped significantly by patriotic, conservative and orderly values. 

*I have always perceived the world as a conservative Christian republican and everyone around me knows that I am an absolute control freak. This is my cultural heritage; however, my sense of "reality" is no longer simply affected by these roots. Ultimately study abroad trips to Germany, living with an all British soccer team, and the knowledge gained from a college education and the experiences with it's learned professors combine and clash with those cultural roots. What is "real" must not be perceived solely from an outsider's perspective, something my cultural roots (and anyone's for that matter) traditionally do not agree with.