From social science research we know that even the paltriest personal trivia—stances, accents, clothing choices, furniture arrangements—can offer clues to status. At the same time, appraisers identify us through the signals, cues, and significant absences they find important. We may have control over what others observe, but we have no control over how they classify us. Nor do they: their means of perceiving and identifying us is based on their habitus. So, for all practical purposes, questions of identity are bound up with status.
