Understanding Culture: Enculturation and Social Dynamics
Understanding Culture and Society
Culture is the way of living of a society. It’s defined by:
- Cultural knowledge: Information, skills, attitudes, beliefs, and other mental components of culture that people socially learn during enculturation.
- Patterns of behavior: Within a single culture, the behavior most people perform when they are in certain culturally defined situations.
Culture is:
- Shared: People within the same culture don’t have to explain their actions, reducing misunderstandings. Different sub-cultures can exist within a nation.
- Socially learned: Individuals learn it as they grow up.
The Dynamics of Culture
Cultures are dynamic because they are constantly changing, and they are based on the social environment. All humans are the same race but with different genes.
Enculturation and Transmission of Culture
Enculturation (socialization) is how people transmit their culture to the following generation. Any changes are also transmitted. It is related to patterns of behavior because as we are born, we are part of a society. This society has a particular culture that you learn during growth as the older generations teach you how you must act and behave in particular situations. For example, in the movie *The Village*, older people teach others not to go through the woods.
Enculturation and Subculture
Enculturation is related to subculture. A subculture includes cultural differences characteristic of members of various ethnic groups, regions, religions, etc., within a single society or country.
Cultural Knowledge
Cultural knowledge comprises information, skills, attitudes, beliefs, and other mental components of culture that people socially learn during enculturation. It has five elements:
- Norms
- Values
- Symbols
- Worldviews
- Constructions of reality
It’s transmitted to generations with changes.
Norms
Norms are shared ideals or rules that tell people how to act in different situations or with different people.
Values
Values are people’s beliefs about the way of life that is desirable for themselves and society.
Worldviews
Worldviews are the way people interpret reality, including how they see themselves in the world.
Cultural Universals
Cultural universals are norms, things, attitudes, etc., that we have in common across the world. For example, taboos (prohibition on sexual relations between certain kinds of relatives) are prohibited in all cultures, but the specific relatives may vary depending on the culture. Behavior varies because there are so many different cultures. For example, in some Western cultures, when walking with a husband, partners are often side-by-side. However, in some Muslim cultures, the woman must walk behind the man because their culture dictates it.
The Concept of Race
The concept of race is defined as a cultural construction rather than a biological one. Firstly, genetic studies show that the genetic variation within a given race far exceeds the variation between races. Secondly, most differences that we attribute to race are only skin deep. When we place people into racial categories, we generally focus on certain visible physical traits, like skin color and facial features.
In summary, the set of traits we use to define races leads to one kind of racial classification, but we would have a different classification if we used different traits.