Socialization

Socialization as a concept originated in sociology and refers most simply to the process of learning to pattern behavior and adapt to society's norms, rules, and strictures for playing specific social roles. Although it has not been central to British social anthropology, the discipline's focus on society has contributed to a heavier emphasis on socialization than in American cultural anthropology, where the closely related concept of enculturation has been more important. Enculturation refers to the way individuals learn to pattern their thinking and feeling in culturally [Page 2098]appropriate ways. Nonetheless, since all human beings undergo both kinds of learning, many anthropologists use the terms almost interchangeably to refer to the entire learning process necessary to be able to function in any given society or culture.

Studies of both socialization and enculturation in anthropology have tended to be grounded in theories of cognitive development that are holistic and social, rather than those that are more universalizing. George Herbert Mead and Lev Vygotsky are two popular sources for anthropologists to turn to because both thinkers focused on the social aspects of cognitive development. Both wrote about the importance of mastering symbols as a marker of maturity and, especially Mead, about the centrality of role playing in the learning process.

The earliest studies of socialization in anthropology focused largely on the ways that children and other immature members of society imitate the behaviors of adults or other mature members. Indeed, a review of the majority of the ethnographies of childhood, from the first by F. C. Spencer in 1899 up to the present, reveals that imitation is central to the socialization process in virtually every culture on earth. Classic examples of both American cultural anthropology, such as Margaret Mead's study of growing up on the island of Manus near New Guinea, and British social anthropology, such as Meyer Fortes's work with the Tallensi in East Africa, focus on the ways children rehearse interests, skills, feelings, behaviors, and other aspects of life in their culture and society without long-term repercussions for any mistakes.

In addition, these and many other ethnographers indicate that childrearing is actually secondary to the “culture-seeking” activities of children themselves. This is not to deny the role of teaching, other kinds of instruction, and, especially, such corrective feedback as threats, teasing, and shaming in the socialization and enculturation processes, but rather to emphasize both the agency of children and, more important, the near impossibility of transmitting most cultural knowledge in verbal form. In this way, the centrality of participant observation among both anthropologists in the field and young children everywhere have the same basis. Indeed, many societies actually deny that children, especially those under the age of six or seven, have any ability to understand the world around them, make appropriate decisions about their thoughts and feelings, or exercise control over their behavior. As a result, few people in these societies bother to teach young children at all, through either verbal or other kinds of training. They are left to learn through observation and imitative play, sometimes with the threat of censure if they act inappropriately, but often (especially outside of the West) without a formal lesson on how to act.

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