As the self continually develops with each and every interaction that it makes with its immediate environment since proximal processes are at its core, it develops its uniqueness as the person ages wherein the person begins to explore more of his surroundings and detach himself/herself from his/her roots, the family. During that time, the self does not only acquire its unique self but also its habitus which ultimately shapes the self’s actions in his/her daily life and how one sees himself/herself in a structured context such as society.
Habitus, according to Pierre Bourdieu, are “systems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to structuring structures,” Admittedly, habitus is a rather complex term to grasp as it nearly encompasses everything based on how a person sees a certain object, event, or actions. They manifest in one’s dispositions, competencies, lifestyle preferences, and possibly more aspects.
Focusing on habitus as a disposition, one acquires this informally through social interactions by processes of imitation, repetition, role play, and game participation initially done during early childhood association. Since disposition is a prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination to unconsciously act towards, one can understand habitus as a person’s taken-for-granted, unreflected—hence largely habitual—way of thinking and acting that generates perceptions (understandings), expectations (attitudes), practices (behavior) that reproduce the social milieu or structures that birthed it. However, it should be noted that a person’s action is merely influenced by habitus thus inclining them to act and react towards a certain way, but not predetermined by habitus itself. Additionally, a person’s behavior, mainly the human actions, is constituted by external structures which means that it can change depending on the current structure and standards of society which one operates in.
To understand society, one must understand its individual components of the individual’s family, the individual’s capital, and the field the individual operates in. The family is the primary socializing force which have child rearing attitudes and practices that vary by social class that form the collective habitus. It is an intergenerational habitus as the family members adjust to the other family members’ thoughts and actions. With the family comes one’s initial source of capital and power that provide possibilities and constraints for the development of the self’s human actions or the habitus. These capitals come in the form of power or resources which can be economic, social, cultural, or symbolic. Finally, fields are spaces or environments occupied by individuals or groups that does the same activity. These are often structured in terms of power relations thus the existence of competition for capital or power essential to the betterment of one’s life. Everyone included in a certain field has his/her part to transform or preserve the existing power/social hierarchy. Thus, an individual’s capital can potentially alter the power/social hierarchy that he/she is faced with. These are all primarily evident through one’s speech as it is the main form of communicating one’s habitus to others.
With the concept of habitus in mind, I can identify my prevailing identity, my disposition towards certain things such as lifestyle, habits, and more, with respect to the fields that I operate in. I choose to identify two fields that I operate in which are a middle-class, Roman Catholic, Filipino-Chinese family or my primary field and the student community of Ateneo being my secondary field. My family serves as the main source of my capitals which provides me all the four types of capitals while the Ateneo community serves as an extension to my social and cultural capital.
In today’s society or ever since then, families are everyone’s initial source of capital for the development of his/her habitus. In my family, it has been mainly structured since then that the hierarchy is heavily grounded on respect for elders primarily evident in Chinese families, meaning that our hierarchy is built on a symbolic capital. After symbolic capital, it can be structured according to economic capital, meaning that one has power equivalent to the amount of money or resources he/she can accumulate. Although cultural and social capital don’t have much effect on my family to form a hierarchy based on them, cultural capital is given more emphasis as this includes the level of education that the family members have undertook. As one can observe, even the capitals have their own hierarchy that is heavily dependent on the context that they are being used in. The overall mood that I am getting from my family (including relatives) is that of a serious or even tough love, but it’s still love nonetheless. A main reason that can best explain this is that hierarchy in my family is based on the family member’s age as the older he/she is, the more experience he/she has accumulated than others or the prevailing ethnicity in my family.
However, in the student community of Ateneo, the hierarchy of capitals are reversed, meaning that social capital is the most powerful and symbolic capital is the least powerful. In this community, almost everyone is near each other’s age which makes respect for elders the least effective basis in establishing a hierarchy within it. As for economic capital, most in the community are still studying which essentially puts them in the same field in terms of economic resources (excluding the family’s economic resources) unless he/she has his/her own ways of earning money which makes a hierarchy on economic capital rather ineffective. Instead, hierarchy is mainly based on cultural and social capital. Cultural capital focuses on one’s style of speech, dress, etc. that constitute one’s identity or is reflective of his/her habitus. On the other hand, social capital bears more gravity as this focuses on the groups or cliques that one interacts and identifies with, reflecting his/her habitus. Hierarchy in these capitals are structured mainly on social capital or popularity of groups and is amplified with cultural capital or prejudices that each group has towards one another.
In my family, I am the eldest among the siblings. This essentially puts me in the middle of a family of five. However, with the inclusion of first degree relatives and their own capitals, I am placed further down as we (my family) don’t have much resources when compared to them. Given the hierarchy and the lack of resources to challenge or change the existing hierarchy, the best option would be compliance to the ones above in the hierarchy. However, it should be noted that this compliance is not out of force, but rather out of love and respect to the belief since then. Although there are some hints of it being forced. Alongside the sufficient economic resources that my family has, I’ve learnt to be content with the little things that my family has now. Being able to study, eat, and have a shelter is more than enough. With this, I was also unconsciously molded to be thrift and to buy only the necessary things. In line with the Roman Catholic view, I’ve aspired to live a simple life without having much material possessions but having many memories of all kinds to look back to. With being content, I’ve also learnt not to be envious of the things that others have, which I don’t have. Should there be something that I want, I learnt to make full use of all the resources that I have at hand and do my best to achieve/attain it. Essentially, these are the core values in my identity.
Additionally, in the student community of Ateneo, I can say that I belong to the middle section as well or the average student wherein he/she has sufficient time dedicated to academics, friends, and family. The ones in the higher section are the popular ones which usually goes to parties and other events despite having academic requirements. They essentially are the cool and possibly rich kids in the campus. On the other hand, the ones in the lower section are the awkward ones which usually focus on gaming. They essentially are the loners who love or may not love to spend time alone. Although they are stated with generalizations based on most people, I am in no way saying that one group is better than the other. I am saying that each group has their own preference in a lot of aspects, and each merits respect despite the existing prejudices regarding each group. I strive to be in the middle of being awkward and cool, or average in most things as I believe that it gives me a well-rounded identity of myself.
Given that speech is the habitus’ mode of communication, imparting knowledge or my experiences to others essentially shows my habitus and my social position in a given field with much critical analysis done by the recipient. Additionally, since the well known line of “actions speak louder than words” applies, I can show my habitus by living out the things that I believe to be central to my identity or life.
During my Binhi session, we went to a small community of senior citizens who belong to the marginalized poor. From the description set above, one can infer that they may not have much economic capital when compared to the Ateneans (including the Atenean’s family’s economic capital). Alongside this, I can say that their symbolic capital is also rich as they have a lot of experience regarding life mainly because of the amount of years that they have lived. Their social capital is extremely rich as they know each other well enough that they can chat with each other on a daily basis as stated by the “lola” which I was assigned to. I assumed that the overall point of the visit was to talk to them and hear their perspectives on their lives. I went there expecting to be imparted with knowledge and wisdom on a very serious mood. However, the nature of the visit wasn’t really serious as we were greeted with smiles and a few warm hugs. I can see that they are living a rather simple yet happy lifestyle. Furthermore, they are a very religious community as my “lola” also said that they would gather every Sunday for Bible studies. One of the best advice that I received from the seniors there is “Siguraduhing matapos ang pag-aaral bago maghanap ng boyfriend o girlfriend,” Overall, the binhi community gave us a warm and caring type of love as they imparted with us their unique knowledge in various facets of life in the hopes of making an impact in our lives.
The habitus that is closely similar to this is that of my family’s habitus. However, instead of receiving tough love from them, I was welcomed with a hospitable love that welcomes anyone. Furthermore, most of our conversations are in straight Filipino which I am not completely used to doing. Growing up, I was taught to speak Chinese, English, and Filipino at the same time. This puts me in a situation wherein I can understand what other people are saying in said languages, but I cannot articulate properly and fluently in those languages as well. This made my conversation with my “lola” rather slow or even causing misunderstandings at times. These are probably the only differences in the usual habitus that I operate in that I’ve fully experience as there may also be other differences that I was not aware of at that time. Some similarities include having a simple yet happy lifestyle and the various practices of the Roman Catholic church, especially that of simplicity in life. Additionally, most of the knowledge and wisdom that they have imparted with me is closely similar to that of my parents and grandparents, especially the advice stated above as my parents believe that education should come first before thoughts of serious relationships. Furthermore, given that I was raised in a family that prioritizes respect for elders above all else, I gave the seniors the respect that they deserve by listening to their stories diligently and helping them do some of their household chores should they permit/accept my assistance. Essentially, I operated similarly in their field as to how I would operate in the field of my family as they share similar vibes. As for my habitus in the student community of Ateneo, it wasn’t able to be of much use in the Binhi engagement as the social context of the community was set similarly to that of a family. However, I was able to make new friends or connect more to the other students that were assigned to the same “lola” that I was assigned to with the help of my other stated habitus.
Given the discrepancy of the capitals or the habitus that each person was raised in, there will be instances wherein one can connect and understand others easily as they possibly share a lot of similarities in their dispositions. There will also be some instances wherein it requires one extensive effort, patience, and understanding towards others with different dispositions to form a connection between one another. However, despite doing so, there still lies the possibility that they really won’t connect with one another as the differences in dispositions are simply too much or not conducive to form a connection.
Intersectionality theory emphasizes the understanding of identity within a social structural context as identity is formed by various institutional, political, and societal structures. With this, one can understand that identities are also based on status and power relations. A matrix of identities is conjured to better understand this concept. This matrix can also be seen as a matrix of domination as intersecting identities create instances of both opportunity and oppression. No one is exempted from this matrix as everyone can experience both opportunity and oppression depending on the situation.
Intersectionality comes in shaping the identities, dispositions, or habituses of each and every person. One cannot fully understand the habitus of the seniors without taking into consideration their race, class, gender, and other social constructs for identification. Various combinations of such creates various identities or habituses. Additionally, the social structures are present to help one identify where exactly are they in society. They could belong to the upper half or the lower half if it is structured based on economic capital. This shows that social structures are hypersensitive to context. With this, the members belonging to a certain structure are also sensitive towards the thoughts or prejudices that other people of the same structure have towards them. Thus, one should be aware of the common prejudices towards a certain group, and be cautious enough to interact with a member of a certain group so as not to instigate tension between one another. This is essential to establishing a connection with other people.
In my Binhi experience, I am glad that I was able to successfully connect with others (both the seniors and the Ateneans) as we share a relatively similar habitus. Additionally, besides connecting with them, they also reinforced or structured my disposition or my identity just as I did to them as well with each and every interaction that we had, mainly done through the sharing of stories throughout the stay. If one were not careful with identifying the various factors or the intersectionality that influence the habitus of the seniors and how they perceive themselves to be in society, there is a high possibility that he/she will not connect with the seniors or be welcomed lovingly and instead be met with tension or hostility as they feel uncomfortable around the person. Essentially, habitus, intersectionality, and social structure help identify where one is and where other people are that shows the similarities or differences that they have with one another which can aid in forming a relationship between the two people.
Jacob's Journey 