Investigating Cultural Sustainability and Identity by Analyzing my St. Thomian Family through Autoethnography

Abstract

This capstone explores what aspects of culture, if any, have been sustained, lost, or transformed within my St. Thomian family. This paper is split into two sections, themes from literature and takeaways from dialogues. “Themes from Literature” highlights commons topics from St. Thomas’s history that have possible implications on my family. The paper further analyzes how each theme was sustained, lost, or transformed within my family based off the dialogues conducted. My work incorporates interviews with my mother, grandmother, two great-aunts, and five cousins. “Takeaways from Dialogues” are significant concepts centering around community and the difficulties of sustaining culture that were discovered and developed during and after having conversations with my family. Lastly, my reflection ends by me discussing how I plan on sustaining my family’s culture.