UNDERSTANDING CULTURE,

SOCIETY, AND POLITICS

CORE SUBJECT
(GRADE 12 First Semester)

MODULE 6
MODULE 1
ENCULTURATION
AND
SOCIALIZATION

Module 6: Enculturation and Socialization

 How culture ingrained in children? Is it though biological inheritance (nature) or through cultural
inheritance (nurture)? The issue on nature and nurture has been long-standing debate in the fields of social
sciences such as sociology and anthropology. Two primary opposing perspectives are held by social learning
theorist and sociobiologists.

Proponents of the social learning theory argue that the set of behavior of an individual is acquired through
enculturation and socialization processes. The variation in the human behavior is attributed to the differences in
cultural templates of every society that the individual learns from. Proponent of sociology counters this
perspective by advocating that human acquire their behavior genetically. More specifically, beneficial
biological traits that are linked to biological traits necessary for survival for specific environment that are
naturally selected within a generation and get passed on to the next.

Today, the social learning perspective is more accepted by sociologist and anthropologists in explaining
the development of behavior and attitudes among humans. Sociologist used the term socialization to refer to the
process by which an individual is oriented and taught by his or her society’s norms. These norms include
beliefs, attitudes, practices, and behaviors. Similarly, this process is studied in anthropology through the concept
of enculturation.

In instances when a person does not get socialized or enculturated, it is possible that his or her behavior
would resemble that of other animals. This was observed among feral children (wild children) of France. They
were labeled as such as due to their display of animalistic behavior upon their discovery. One of the famous
cases is that of Victor, who was popularly known as the “boy of Aveyron”. Victor lived in the forest alone from
his fourth to twelfth year. He was found in 1797 by locals and was taken in by Jean Marc Gaspar Itard, a
physician who gave him his name. For years, Itard and the other scientists attempted to teach Victor spoken
language to no avail. Recent studies on the documents on Victor revealed that he may have been left in forest by
his parent who physically abused him when he was six or seven. A probable reason for the abandonment is
Victor’s mental condition, because he displayed a sign of autism. The case of feral children was also recorded
in the other part of the world ( Bettelhem, 1959). However , no conclusive scientific study has still been
conducted and accomplished about the topic.

Identity Formation
You have learned that through enculturation and socialization, an individual learns the norms of his or
her society. The compilation of the values, attitudes, and belief that individual received from their family, peers,
and community enables them to create a personal identity that simultaneously separates them from the other
member of the group and incorporates them in its system. Such differentiation from the general social template
is called individualization. This can be related to the concept of personal identity.

Social identity is a person’s notion of who is he or she is in society. This includes the roles and statuses
that he or she performs in accord to what the society expects of him or her. There are two primary types of
identity that individual takes on: primary and secondary. Primary identity consists of a roles and statuses that
an individual learns as a child. This includes the core social identities that are often ascribed to an individual
such as sex, age, and ethnicity. As a child gets enculturated and socialized with his or her society’s norm and
statuses that are achieved such as occupation, educational background, economic status and gender.

This duality of identity produces the “me” and “I” dichotomy that humans have.
 This model presents a fourfold understanding of human identity, which are categorized as follows: the
existential “I.’ the doing “me”, the cultural “I” and the performing “me.” These categories promoted a holonic
concept of the self – the self is both a whole and a part. The self in the context of the personal pertains to the
wholeness of an individual’s identity. This leads back to the uniqueness of every individual. The self in the
context of it being a part of whole reflects on the ascribed roles that it plays within the context of society.

In the previous activity, notice how you categorized the elements. What factor did you consider in
categorizing the elements? Your cultural background plays an important role in the enabling you to identify is
for display to your peers and which is for display to your parents. This is the reason that you play different roles
and different groups of people.

Theories on Identity

There are two primary theories related to the understanding of identity formation and practice. The role
of learning promotes the argument that individuals learn a repertoire of social roles from their society. Then
they reproduce this repertoire in their behavior. Roles constitute the social facts (e.g., gender role, occupational
role .family role) that inhibit .empower, and influence an individual’s action. Conformity to these action facts is
rewarded by acceptance from member of society, whereas nonconformity results ostracism. The primary
argument against this theory is that it is too socialization-deterministic, as it side steps the potential of humans
to recreate roles and not just accept them.

This weakness is addressed by the theory on symbolic interactionism, which promotes the idea that
individuals construct their notion of the self through social interactions performed within the society. This
implies that roles and their performances are part of a creative process wherein the individual sees the behavior
of others and responds to it by creating a role that it can play. This presents humans as social actors performing
within a cultural or social field.

Norms and Values

The concept of cultural values refers to all those ideas held in society that are considered good,
acceptable and right. Cultural values inform the types of aspirations that members of society aspire for, and
these are labeled as social goals. A society that is rooted in individualism would have one of its social goals to
have its independent population emancipated from parental support at an earlier age. While a society that is
rooted in extensive kinship system would have the pooling of the family members within one territory as a
social goal. Such goals are achieved through socially approved norms that constitute beliefs, behaviors, and
material possessions.

Using conflict theory, it can be said that these values and goals are sometimes the source of conflict
within a society, as individuals have varying access and experiences relating to it. For example, the values
which center on wealth acquisition and its accompanying prestige and power are not held true by all individuals
in a society, as these values are scarce and unattainable for some individual.

Another perspective on values and goals is from the functionalism theory, which argues that values
exist to create unity and harmony within the structure and fulfill the needs of the individuals. This uses
organismic view of society wherein its parts (organs) interrelated and critical for its existence (organism).
Values are created and upheld because they maintain the structure that promotes social order. For example, the
values that Filipinos attach to family promote tightly knit communities that serve as support groups for
individuals.

Because a society has a plethora of values and goals, conflicts in the practice of these are possible. The
value that Filipinos put on family sometimes poses a great threat in the practice of democratic governance in the
country due to the kumpadrino system that leads to nepotism and political dynasties. In this case, the ideal
culture of a democratic society is countered by the real culture of family-run political institutions. And ideal
culture is what a society actually follows.

Reinforcing the continuity of values and goals in society are the norms that are established. These
consist of the rules and regulation on behavior. Although societies may have similar values and goals, the norms
that, are created in reference to these values may vary. For example, the values place on the family member in a
nursing home maybe a norm in Western society, but it is almost unacceptable or even unthinkable, in most
Asian societies.

There are four categories of norms:

1. Folkways – are the socially approved behaviors that have no moral underpinning. This includes the
variety of actions that constitute acceptable or expected behavior drawn from customs and conventions.
2. Mores – are the norms related to moral conventions. These include behaviors that are considered
acceptable in relation to religious practices. The use of artificial contraceptives, such as condoms, and
birth control pills, is frowned upon in highly religious societies whereas it is accepted, and even
encourage, in others that do not follow the conventional dictates of religious doctrine.
3. Taboos – are behaviors that are absolutely forbidden in a specific culture. Performances of taboos are
met in stricter punishments. Examples of taboos are cannibalism and incest. It must be noted that taboos
are not universal.
4. Laws – consist of the rules and regulations that are implemented by the state, making them the prime
source of social control. Violations of laws are met with punishments, fines, ostracism, and
imprisonment.

Status and Role

Our forms of social interaction are always within the context of our statuses and that of the people we
are interacting with. This is to say that we speak and behave differently toward different sets of people. You
have set of vocabularies and nonverbal cues that you use for your parent, which you may not use with your
peers. A status is an individual’s position in his or her society, which varies with it a set of defined rights and
obligations. Your statuses as a student comes with obligations and rights, which arte define as your roles.

Roles are the set of expectation from people who occupy a particular status. From the vocabulary that
they would use to their performance of their statuses, these are all within the framework of roles. The behavior
of an individual within a social space in accordance to his or her status is called role performance. Sometimes,
a status has multiple roles attached to it. This multiplicity of roles within a given statuses is called a role set.
Hence, your teacher’s role is not just to educate you. He or she also has the role of being your guardian while
you are away from your parents.

As humans are capable of occupying various statuses simultaneously, conflicts may arise in the variety
of roles that they have to perform. A single mother who is working full-time has two equally important roles,
She has the role of being a single parent who must provide for her child. However, given her other which
requires her to perform the role of a wage-earner, a conflict on which role she needs to prioritize sometimes
arises. Role conflict stems from the divergent expectations of the statuses that an individual simultaneously
occupies. Such conflicts may create role train on the individual. This implies that the individual is having
difficulty in performing the role required of him or her. In the case of the single mother with a full-time job, role
strain might cause her choose which role she will have to continue performing and which role, she needs to
discontinue. This process of discontinuing with a role is labeled as role exit. Individuals would often have a role
exit to either address a role strain or indulge in a new role set.

Conformity and Deviance

Conformity is an act of following the roles and goals of one’s society. This behavior is often met
rewards and acceptance from other members of society.

Deviance is the act of violating the prescribed social norms. Acts of deviance are often associated with a
stigma. A stigma is a strong sense of disapproval of nonconforming behavior from members of a society. When
deviance is within the context of legal structures, it may even be considered a crime or a violation of a law.

Because deviance is always juxtaposed with a norm, which changes based on environmental factors, it is
also constantly changing. As it is socially constructed, the actions that are considered deviant vary per society
and per social status.

There are several theories that explain the existence of deviants (human/groups) and deviance (acts).

 Social Control Theory – deviance is primarily caused by a lack in stronger social bonds within a
society. As an individual feels less attached to his or her society, there is a higher chance for him or her
to deviate from social norms.
 Rational Choice Theory – the individual’s decision to follow or to go against social norms is dependent
on their perceived cost and benefit of such action. This implies that humans weigh the impact of
following a norm. If following a norm would cost them more than what they could spare, such as a norm
is set aside and they would choose to perform a deviant act.
 Differential Association Theory – conformity or deviance is learned by an individual from those him
or her associate with. Hence, if an individual has stronger associations with a group of deviants, then it
is most likely that he or she would conform a deviant behavior than what of what the general public
considers as a norm. Interestingly, what is deviant for the general public may be considered as a norm
among a group of deviants.
 Labeling Theory – actions are initially not considered deviant until they are labeled as such by
members of the community. Base on this theory, there are 2 stages of deviance: Primary Deviance is a
type of act that does not end with the individual being labeled as such. This is due to the age and
intensity of the deviance committed. Secondary Deviance is the type of act that results from being
labeled by society as deviant. This presents the theory’s key argument that human who are labeled as
deviants would often commit deviant acts due to societal pressure brought about by stigma. Hence. A
person who is labeled a thief may resort to being one as a response to economic ostracism by social
stigma.
 Conflict Theory – society consist of opposing groups of people whose access to power is unequal. The
group that has access to power determines which actions are deviant based on their perceived advantage.
 Usually, the set of behaviors off the elite is created and reproduced as the norm, and those of the
powerless are considered deviant.
 Structural-functionalist Theory – this theory proposes two perspectives in the formation of deviant
behavior. On the macro level, deviance is the product of the breakdown of social norms which produces
anomie or social disorganization. On the microlevel, deviance is a product of the role strain that an
individual experiences due to lack of resources to cope with the demands of the social norms.

Based on this perspective, Merton (1957) created a model illustrating the types or responses that
individuals have toward social norms with regard to two variables: Cultural Goals consists of the values that
are important for the society. Institutional Means are the processes that have been established through social
structure such as the government, school, church, and even family.

In Merton’s typology individuals who accept their society’s cultural goals and that of the process to
accomplish it are labeled as conformists, whereas those who accept the goal but not the process are called
innovators. Such individuals are bent toward achieving the same social goals using an alternative approach.
Individuals who reject the goal but accept the process are prone to ritualism, as they perform the social norms
without subscribing to the social goals that such lead to. Those who reject both the goals and the approach are in
the process of retreatism, which would redefine the goals and processes in a society in the form of rebellion.

Nevertheless, this theory argues that deviance is important in maintaining the social structure of a
society; it bonds members of the society in their common rejection of a deviant behavior. It also provides
members of society with guidelines on appropriate behavior with the display of unacceptable and stigmatized
action.

Social Control

To maintain social order and stability, social control is needed. The two elements that promote social
control are internalization and sanctions. Internalization is an integral part of communicating and incorporating
social norms to an individual’s personality. It is in this process hat an individual is made to automatically
conform to the dictates of his or her society through a cost-benefit orientation. One key element in ensuring that
individuals are able to internalize social norms is the establishment of sanctions.

What happens if you decide not to do your homework? Possible outcomes include the following:

1. Getting a zero score or rating for the activity from your teacher.
2. Getting a stern warning on how to be a better child from your parent.
3. Being labeled as lazy by your classmates.

Considering all these possible repercussions of not completing your homework, would you opt to
complete it or still sidestep it?
 Sanctions are powerful in leading an individual to conform to social norms. Despite an individual’s
disinclination; to conform, when the sanction is strong, there is a high possibility that he or she will decide to
follow the norm. Sanctions can be categorized into four types:

 Formal Sanctions – these are the rewards or forms of punishments that are formally awarded by an
institution such as a government, a council, or an establishment.
 Informal Sanctions – these are the rewards and forms of punishment that are spontaneously given by an
individual or a group of people as a response to a behavior that was either accepted or disapproved.
 Positive Sanctions – thee are actions or statements that reward a particular behavior, with reinforce its
repetition.

These are the actions or statements that punish or threaten to punish an acceptable behavior, which
enforce conformity to the deviant.
 UNDERSTANDING CULTURE,
SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Name: Score:
Grade & Strand: Teacher: Sir JP

MODULE 6

Erasures means wrong! Any kind of superstitions also considered as wrong!

Reflect Upon

1. What is the most important lesson about being a person that your parents thought you? How was this lesson
aided you in dealing with other people in your society?

What Have I learned So Far?

1. How does socialization affect the creation of one’s identity?

2. How are socio-biologists and social learning theorist dissimilar in their explanation of culture acquisition of
humans?

3. How is a value different from a norm?

4. What are the four types of norms?

5. How can identities be formed?

6. How is an ideal culture different from a real culture?

7. What is enculturation?

8. What is socialization?

9. Why are sanctions and internalization crucial in establishing social control?

10. Why does deviance exist in society?