To riff a little on what Alaric said, since moving to New Zealand and learning a bit about Māori culture, there is a Māori custom of the "pepeha" which is basically a short bio introducing yourself, Telling people who you are, linking you to the land, mountain, river, sea, tribe, subtribe, whakapapa (genealogy) and marae (sacred meeting place). The Māori person explaining it said that it was entirely appropriate for non-Māori to have a pepeha, and that even though you might not have a tribe, whakapapa, or marae, that the purpose of the pepeha was to give enough background of yourself that people could find potential shared connections. That it was to explain where you fit in the web of relationships.
So I no longer take the "what do you do" and "where are you from" questions literally. Instead I explain a little about my history, where I've spent time making connections, groups I'm connected to, and other potential places my circles might overlap with theirs. Depending on context I'll curate which connections I mention, but the gist is I treat the questions as "how might we be connected, what common things might we share?" — Charles
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