MONGREL OF ALL CULTURES
Ananya Warrier
FY B. Sc. Economics (2024-2028)
Reading Time – 5 mins
Source: AI generated
I have lived in many different parts of India, and even the world. I am originally Malayali, born in Chennai, lived in a bunch of other places, came back to Chennai, to then be shifted to Pune – all by the age of ten. I used to have grandparents in Bengaluru and a grandmother and aunt in Mumbai. Even though I’ve only ever stayed in these cities for a couple of weeks at a time, I feel like I know them deeply. Still, I’ve never quite felt like I belonged to either. It’s more like I perform the part, sometimes as a Malayali, sometimes as a Puneri, depending on who I’m speaking to. But even then, it never really feels like enough.
Then there are my cousins, scattered across the globe, who’ve moved around so much that it’s shaped half the reason behind my own travel plans. They’re adaptable, yes, but often speak of feeling distant, even “othered” at times. It’s such a contrast to many of my classmates, who’ve lived in the same city, gone to the same school, and grown up surrounded by the same people all their lives.
The return of Sunita Williams from her harrowing journey got me thinking – why do we put so much emphasis on having just one identity, especially in an open world where cultural barriers have more or less disappeared? Why are we not able to accept children born or raised under different cultures and races? This could be because this “identity” helps foster unity and belonging, thus leading to social cohesion. Let us take a country as diverse as India: there are people who have lived in the same city, let alone the same state, their whole lives, and then there are others who have lived in at least two or more cities, states, or countries, known as cross-cultural kids (CCK). The official definition is “anyone who has meaningful interaction with more than one culture before age 18.” This also includes children of refugees, immigrants and children of mixed heritage or race. Some common characteristics that most cross-cultural adults and children experience include: a sense of rootlessness, where you feel you belong everywhere and nowhere, and are just floating around, untethered; high adaptability – having floated around so much, they’re used to learning to adjust and adapt much more quickly; often finding a sense of belonging with others of similar background rather than shared race or ethnicity alone.
But how did this phenomenon of cross-culturalism start? Before the world fell to chaos in April 1914, most people lived in the same community all their lives, leading to a strong sense of personal identity, with clear demarcations – an “us versus them” mentality. The only time they stepped out of their communities was when they travelled, for work or business purposes. However, as countries opened up their borders for trade, people started migrating for better opportunities, and soon people, typically from developing countries, would migrate to developed countries, especially the United States and Europe. In this way, cultures too spread within these countries, giving birth to multicultural societies.
Who are considered cross cultural-kids?
A narrower version of this phenomenon is called the “third cultural child” (TCK), where someone is born in a place outside of their parents’ hometowns. They tend to “move between cultures before they have had the opportunity to complete the critical task of personal and cultural identity development.” TCKs often develop an identity that’s rooted in people and relationships rather than places. It is a relational culture. Globalisation has made TCKs more common. Despite the fact that TCKs, because of their culturally mobile upbringing, represent the very essence of multicultural beings in a global society, systematic studies of multiculturalism rarely include TCKs. Even in fields where the acronym TCK is fairly well known, it is often misunderstood. Most people assume that the “Third” part of a “Third Culture Kid” comes from the simple addition of 1 + 2 = 3. That is, my home plus where I live equals a mixed-up third culture. While there’s a little something to that, the reality is quite different. This term also includes children who have experienced any number of cultures, through the frequency by which their parents move for work, or living in diverse and cosmopolitan environments, where culture is brought to their city or country.
In a way, most of us could identify with this notion – we all know about life in the States – the good, the bad, and the ugly. We all even consume products that are traditionally more American or European. Had anyone even heard of Campa Cola before its comeback in March 2023? Probably not, (I certainly did not), and that is because we are all used to American Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Now also, with the influx of cultural exports, like from Korea, Japan, China, Turkey, and many more, people have widened their knowledge of different cultures, so much so that there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to people from one culture going and living in a different country, showcasing their customs, traditions, and peculiarities. So, in a way, we all can claim to be a “cultural mongrel” – having some part of our thoughts, our actions, our behaviours, be inspired the various cultures and customs that abound in our environment – be it through our family, friends, the media we consume, or even that one cool guy you met on holiday, whose name has been long forgotten, but whose mannerisms crack you up even now, in an examination hall no less (true story).
Or maybe – are we losing the uniqueness we once claimed to have? Are we instead all conforming to the one template personality? We all immediately recognise the memes and reels someone else may reference in passing, we all follow more or less the same celebrities online. The “niche” media we do discover could soon become a trend that lasts about 5 months. Perhaps the internet could be making us one-dimensional shells of ourselves, maybe by design, or perhaps just an unintended consequence of globalisation.