Enculturation

Despite conceptual disagreement over a specific definition of culture, anthropologists tend to agree on three basic characteristics: (1) Culture is not innate or inherited genetically; it is learned; (2) culture is shared, and it has an important role in defining the social boundaries of different groups; and (3) the various facets of culture are interrelated. Enculturation is the process by which family and community members pass on the core values and behaviors of their cultures to the next generation. These new cultural recipients, in turn, become active observers of, and participants in, the way of life of their families and communities. Through a lifelong process, they pick up and internalize those core cultural and linguistic values and play an important role in passing them along to the following generation. In that sense, they become culture bearers. In addition, they also pass along any changes that those traditions have undergone during their lifetimes. In this sense, they also play an important role as culture makers.

Culture is not carried in our genes. It is through the process of enculturation that we learn to become members of our speech communities—to understand, speak, read, and write our languages—as well as to function effectively within our shared culture. Through family and community traditions, we come to know who we are and what our culture expects of us—whether we see ourselves as Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Inupiat, British, Navajo, Nicaraguan, German, French, Argentinean, South African, and so on. When a child accidentally touches a hot object and immediately withdraws his or her hand, this demonstrates a physical reflex that does not have to be taught. But whether the child's response to that unpleasant surprise is a scream of “Ay!” or “Ow!” is an artifact of culture, something transmitted through social interaction. An essential characteristic of being human is the manner in which we, both consciously and unconsciously, transmit cultural patterns to succeeding generations. A newborn infant is a clean cultural slate. Long before children enter a school classroom, however, culturally coded behavioral patterns have been learned through the process of enculturation.

Because cultural patterns are learned, they are highly variable. For example, interaction between parents and children does not follow a single pattern that is innate to all humans. In some native Hawaiian families, when children are involved in a conflict with siblings or friends, parents will discipline everyone involved rather than attempting to identify the guilty parties. Consequently, these children may learn more readily to resolve interpersonal problems within their peer groups rather than sharing them with the adults. In the classroom, however, which generally operates on the basis of a cultural system different from that in the home, teachers will probably want to know who is specifically responsible for any unacceptable behavior. Children may thereby learn different ways of interacting with each other and with adults.

Enculturation exists only in relation to a specific social grouping. Humans acquire and create culture only as members of particular identity-defining groups. Because groups tend to maintain some aspects of their identities while periodically modifying other aspects, individuals function as both cultural consumers and culture change agents. What we do with what we receive as cultural consumers and how we design and construct new connections may create some ambiguity or a lack of stability with respect to cultural processes. In other words, humans are always becoming both “a part of and apart from” a given cultural and linguistic context. For example, a child in her home cultural environment will learn ways to give [Page 246]or get information and attention that are appropriate to her ethnic group. In school, however, she may have to leave those patterns behind to some extent as she learns alternative forms of communication that are more appropriate to the classroom setting. Through such social contact with members of her own and other cultural groups, her cultural identity develops.

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