family legacies - Wisconsin School of Business - University of ...

Family Legacies
The participants in our study embraced family legacies far more than they rejected them,
again reflecting cultural values. Emerging adults embraced family legacies into their individual
identities by enacting them in their daily lives. In several instances, participants’ responses to
their family legacies were ambivalent, suggesting we embrace them because they are uniquely
ours, even though as individuals we may not agree or like them. People also tend to reject most
negative legacies. This may be because, as Stone (1988) suggested, individuals do not want these
negative legacies to become part of their individual identity. This may also be due to selective
remembering, focusing on positive themes or stories. Third generation family members in this
study rejected negative legacies by choosing not to enact them, enacting alternative legacies, or
contradicting the legacy.
Our research adds to narrative inquiry by illustrating how legacies are embraced and
rejected on a continuum. Moreover, this process is contextual, as the legacies within a family
demonstrate how individuals conduct themselves in various situations. Narrators tell stories in
highly selective ways which depends on changing situations and social expectations; narratives
are always context dependent (Archakis & Tzanne, 2005). In some cases, participants only
rejected legacies in certain instances. This finding highlights the idea that individuals can be
selective in their responses to the legacies and that their responses can be contradictory (Archakis
& Tzanne, 2005; May, 2004). Further, the possibility exists that individuals can embrace a
family legacy but not extend it, or reject a family legacy but still pass on its meaning to future
generations. In essence, individuals learn from experience when to enact certain legacies,
depending on the situation and the relationships with the people involved. We speculate that
when family legacies are adopted at the individual level, it is necessary to modify them in order
to better reflect one’s individual identity. Thus, it seems that third generation family members do
35