There are many ways with which we can identify with another person. It is much harder to do that with say, a dog - no matter how much we love our pets -

Let’s go on an imaginary journey of identification. We embark on it anywhere in the world, and the only common thing we all share on that journey is that it takes place on our home planet earth. We move from the apparently easiest identifiable to the apparently least identifiable parts of our selves.

As you walk along the road, having been alone for the longish time, and only having seen animals, you finally accounter a fellow human being. You see him or her in distance, hard to tell yet whether it’s a man or a woman.

But that doesn’t matter as much as the conflict you might be experiencing within yourself. Is the person a friendly one, or might he or she pose a threat perhaps? Still, having been without a human contact for days, you long for the interaction.

Getting close, you see it’s a man. Same as you. Or a woman, same as you. We are concerned here about being if the same gender - usually the second identifiable thing after the division into human beings and (other) animals.

Do, gender. How important it is actually determining which way to go in our journey? Same sex - we could be friends, foes, colleagues, lovers. Or not. Different gender - the same. But it definitely makes a difference, one way or the other.

Next we might be looking at the age factor. Are we the same age, do we belong to different generations

Religion