Most of the world's population dreams of travel, adventure, rich life experiences. In order for dreams to come true, oddly enough, you need to have some “training.” It is not enough to have a passport or tickets in your pocket - there are tons of other parameters that should be taken into account. One of them is inculturation.
What is the point?
Generally speaking, inculturation is the process of teaching one person or another the cultural norms of behavior and perception of a particular country or nationality.
In fact, this is one of the main activities necessary not only for travel, but also for personal development. For example, some gestures and words in cultures of different nationalities can differ significantly in meaning. Without the necessary knowledge, you can inadvertently insult the person you are talking to and lose his trust forever. In this case, the process of inculturation acts as a kind of safeguard against embarrassing situations that a person can easily encounter while being abroad or even in his own country.
Narrowing value
In the previous paragraph, the process of inculturation was described in the most generalized form. To join this kind of training, a person does not have to pack his bags and buy tickets to Asian countries. Enculturation is rather a process of comprehending one’s own culture. In this case, we mean the features of the norms of behavior and worldview in the native country. This is a kind of personality formation within a particular society, taking into account the experience acquired, traditions and cultural trends.
Subject-object relations
It should be noted that the process of inculturation is a two-way phenomenon. It combines multidirectional vectors. A person as a representative of a particular society has a definite effect on culture. At the same time, in the process of growing up and becoming a person, it is society itself and its cultural norms that are the determining factor in the formation of the personality itself.
Learning Components
Specifically, the process of inculturation includes a number of factors necessary to determine a person as a representative of a particular society, a certain nationality. First of all, these are some universal, basic skills that are characteristic of all carriers of a particular culture. These include features of behavior, reactions to certain verbal or non-verbal acts, awareness of certain values, ways of behavior in specific situations.
By and large, the concept of inculturation in relation to comprehending the peculiarities of world perception in other countries includes approximately the same series of factors, with the only difference being that the process is more natural in the territory of one's own country.
In fact, a person who is within his own country simply does not have a choice in the issue of familiarizing himself with culture. From childhood, he encounters it, absorbs it and accumulates all his life.
With comprehension of the culture of other countries, the situation is, of course, more complicated: it requires significantly greater time, physical, emotional and mental costs, since their own worldview is not only supplemented, but also completely modified.
Concept content
To fully understand the essence of the term, a small summary of all of the above should be summarized. Enculturation is the acquisition of a set of knowledge, skills related to the process of life support in a particular culture. In this case, we mean not only professional activities, but also domestic work, the receipt and use of various services and goods. One of the very important points in the process of inculturation is the personal development of a person: his view of the world, his attitude to him, the formation of his favorite occupations, preferences in the forms of art, ways of spending leisure time, or, for example, views on religion.
Of course, inculturation is also the acquisition of communication skills with the surrounding society, interaction with it. In this case, we mean any form of communication between an individual and the world around him.
Finally, this is the formation of a certain basis of knowledge and norms regarding the treatment of one's own body, appearance or clothing. Consider, for example, those tribes in which it is customary to wear rings on women's necks. Within the framework of a particular society, such actions will be regarded as absolutely normal, while in other parts of the world this will be considered a kind of violent measure and will cause condemnation.
Socialization and inculturation
At first glance, the meaning of these two terms may seem, if not identical, at least very similar. In reality, they differ quite significantly. Socialization and inculturation are a kind of complementary processes that basically have one main purpose, but go through different scenarios. There is a rather big difference in the volume of these concepts.
This difference is especially noticeable if inculturation is a process of studying one's own or someone else's culture. Socialization in this case will act as the so-called training in the norms of the country's behavior. Culturalization, inculturation is an introduction to the traditions, worldview, peculiarities of thinking of representatives of a foreign culture, awareness and acceptance of their values.
The process of socialization is always quick and completely natural. It does not require any additional efforts and can be based on simple observation. All that is required of a person is the ability to notice certain features of behavior and repeat them in practice.
Enculturation in cultural studies involves significantly greater time costs, and quite often requires additional efforts necessary for independent study of a particular cultural feature.
Socialization and inculturation of personality, as already mentioned, are parallel, but lead to different results.
The main mechanisms of inculturation
As in the case of socialization, the main way of assimilating cultural traditions is imitation, repetition of cultural bearers. A vivid example of such actions can be called the behavior of people far from the rules of etiquette during a banquet. In order not to seem uncultured, they simply do the same as the rest, more knowledgeable people in this matter.
The mechanisms of inculturation, in essence, are quite simple: observation and repetition. Moreover, this applies not only to basic concepts such as norms of behavior in society, but also to more fundamental phenomena: the inheritance of holiday traditions, the memorization of greeting or common expressions, and the appeal to folklore material.
The only obstacle for a person on the path to full inculturation may be his indecision and fear of making a mistake, and this leads to isolation and unwillingness to even try to join one or another culture.
Socialization and inculturation require the use of another method - direct dialogue with the bearer of culture. In this case, we are talking about the fact that a person with sufficient knowledge becomes a mentor who wants to join this or that culture. It should be noted that this does not have to be a specific person who will introduce the necessary knowledge into the student’s head. In this case, it is the process of dialogue, the interpretation of certain rules that is fundamental. Family members, sightseeing guides or ordinary passers-by can do this.
If we talk about the fundamental differences between inculturation and socialization, it should be noted the difference in the results. Socialization is a process of formation and development in society, as a result of which a person becomes a person. Enculturation is a process of fusion with the culture of society, and as a result, the formation of an intelligent person.
Types of inculturation
Before talking about the specific stages of the process of inculturation, certain corrections should be made: native culture can also be comprehended. In this case, the process will develop according to one scenario - let's call it internal inculturation. A similar, but not identical process - the comprehension of the cultural traditions of other countries - the so-called external inculturation.
Process features
Internal inculturation is conditionally divided into two stages: primary and secondary. This process begins almost with the birth of a child. From childhood, parents, family members, educators, teachers instill in children certain standards of behavior, awareness of phenomena, attitude to life, and so on. Thus, since childhood, a person has embarked on the path of understanding the culture of the people.
The second stage is adult awareness. It requires the application of certain efforts - a person no longer absorbs knowledge and sensations like a sponge, he comes to them, opens them for himself. We can say this is a kind of improvement, expansion of the scope. Thus, we can say that the concept of inculturation includes at once two similar, but not identical, plans.
Maximum accuracy
To fully specify the meaning of the concept, it should be noted that inculturation in cultural studies is a process of understanding the culture of one’s people. Joining other cultures in science is called acculturation. Nevertheless, many researchers do not make such a striking difference and use one term, specifying at the same time its meaning.
