Culture and Basics of Socialization

Culture:
Culture is a very broad concept which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, customs, norms, values etc. In short, it is the accepted way of
doing things in a particular society or a way of doing things that enables
the organization to achieve its objectives, and a belief that it can be
effective and have an impact. Culture is that which makes us who we are.
It shapes the way we think, walk, talk and relate to each other. For
example, the use of xylophones or piano in church or planting behind a
plough is parts of culture. Culture has two components: material culture and non-material culture.

Material Culture: These are products and artefacts that can be experienced with our physical
senses e.g., tools society use-axes, hoes, stools, wooden spoons, paths, location of cemetery etc.
Non-material culture: This includes non-physical or non-observable
elements of culture (which cannot be seen or are hidden) and includes the
following: attitudes, beliefs, norms, values, customs, laws etc.
Ethnocentrism: Ethnocentrism refers to the preferential feeling, belief,
attitude people have that one’s own culture is superior to all others. People
presume that their culture is the best of all cultures and the way they do
things is the right way to do them. It refers to the tendency to see and judge
other people’s culture from the viewpoint of one’s own culture. In short,
ethnocentrism is believing that one’s own race, nation, or culture is superior to all others. But
ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other cultures, causing misunderstanding and
conflict. People with the best intentions sometimes travel to a society to “help” its people, seeing
them as uneducated or backward; essentially inferior. In reality, these travelers are guilty of
cultural imperialism, the deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture.
Europe’s colonial expansion, begun in the 16th century, was often accompanied by a severe
cultural imperialism. European colonizers often viewed the people in the lands they colonized as
uncultured savages who were in need of European governance, dress, religion, and other cultural
practices. A more modern example of cultural imperialism may include the work of international
aid agencies who introduce agricultural methods and plant species from developed countries while
overlooking indigenous varieties and agricultural approaches that are better suited to the particular
region.

Norms: These are rules that govern human behaviour such as rules against cattle-rustling. Norms
are in two categories: Mores and folkways.
Mores are the socially accepted ways of behaviour that are strongly held and violation of
mores may result in severe social action or sanction, such as ostracism.
Folkways: Some practices are not strongly held and even if you did not follow them are
not punishable, e.g. not wearing a necktie. People who do not conform may be subject to
criticism but would not be penalized. Examples of folkways are: Good table manners;

Francis Lungo SSW212 Rural Sociology 2021

 entering home only after removal of shoes, lady touching the feet of her mother-in-law and
greeting others with folded hands.

Values: Values are a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society. These
values are important, desirable, and right.
Laws: These are rules enacted either by those in power or the society to govern human behaviour.
People who ignore the social laws/or norms are said to have deviant behaviour. The term used to
portray people who follow the social laws/ or norms because they are forced by the attitudes and
reprimands of the other members of the society is called social pressure.

Theoretical explanation on human behaviour

There are two schools of thought explaining why people behave the way they do (e.g,
aggressiveness, strong and stamina, domineering). The first school of thought states that social
behaviour or traits are genetically inherited. For example, aggression, cooperation, envy and other
specific behaviours that are wide spread among many human cultures are believed to be genetically
transmitted from generation to generation. This school of thought is known as Socio-Biology. This
school of thought was inferred from the study of insects and other animals. The scholars who take
this theory have observed animal behaviour and discovered that animals live by survival of the
fittest in the jungle. This entails competition for females and the strongest males does the mating,
hence aggressive animals get their needs fulfilled and some animals use cooperation in order to
survive attacks from other animals.
However, other sociologists argued that human behaviour are not genetically inherited. Since
human beings are social by nature, specific behaviours are always learnt within a particular cultural
context. This is called the Social Learning Theory.

Socialization
Socialization is the process by which people learn
characteristics of their group’s norms, values, attitudes,
and behaviors or the process by which an individual learns
how to interact with others to become a member of a
society.

Process of socialisation
You could have noticed within your family or community
that certain behavior or ways of doing things (beliefs,
values, norms) are passed on from one generation to the other through the process called
socialisation. Socialisation is a lifelong process by which people learn the values, norms and roles
of their culture and thus develop a sense of self. Therefore, the way we are, behave and think is
the final product of socialization. Through socialization we also learn what is appropriate and
improper for both genders.

Agents of Socialisation

Francis Lungo SSW212 Rural Sociology 2021

Agents of socialisation are groups or social contexts in which significant processes of socialization
occur or it is an institution or group that prepares an individual for social life and society. You may
have realised that human beings learn most of the habits from the associations they have with other
members of the society. Hence, the common adage, birds of the same feathers flock together.
Although there are many agents of socialisation, in this lecture the agents that are of vital
importance in socialisation of human behaviour are:
 family,
 peer group,
 school, and
 Mass media.

The Family
The primary socialisation occurs in infancy and childhood and is the
most intense period of cultural learning. Therefore, the family is the
primary agent of socialisation during this phase. It is in a family that
the basic personality, attitudes, values and moral ideas are inculcated.
In an African setting, socialisation is not a function of parents alone
but all the kinsmen and kinswomen living with the child’s parents.
Parents desire that their child when it grows should be an extension
officer, doctor, lawyer, teacher, farmer and any other career choices.
Therefore, early in life, parents set objectives and aims of parenting
and training in a certain career direction. How? Many people use:
(i) Reward and Punishment. For example, a child may either
be made to go to school by promising the child some sweets
or enforcing corporal punishment each time the child does
not go to school;
(ii) Some uses instruction where parents sit the child to instruct him/her on how to do certain
things.
(iii) In some cases, a child can imitate its parents/guardians the way they do things. In Africa,
from early childhood, girls are taught that they are a weaker sex and that their place is in
the kitchen while boys are taught that crying is for girls and that men are strong and they
do not cry.

The Peer Group

As a child grows, the family becomes somewhat less important in social development. Instead, the
peer group increasingly assumes the role of inculcating their values, interests, behaviours etc. They
begin to associate with others who are approximately their own age. Thus, peer group becomes
second to parents in the process of socialisation. These groups are called peer groups. In the process
of socialisation, the peer group contribute in the following ways:

Francis Lungo SSW212 Rural Sociology 2021

  The peer group prepares the child in his or her roles in adulthood. The peer group provides
an environment where children learn management of livestock. For instance how to herd
animals; how to plough, cook food, be leaders, courtship behaviour, sex roles when
playing, and expression of aggression and so on. The girls discuss such things of puberty
and boys will be talking about girls;
 Good and bad habits are learnt in these peer groups and these habits are either carried to
adulthood or are dropped; Peer groups confirm or disconfirm the self-judgement of
competence and self-esteem of the child. The peer group might create norms that are
different from the general norms of the society. The group might adopt certain hair styles,
certain fashions will be adopted in these groups and there will be some form of behaviour
that the group will accept. The acceptance of these groups affects the esteem of the child.
The child starts judging himself depending on the peer group.

The School
Another important socialising agency is the school. Schooling is a formal process. In school,
children are expected to be quite in class, be punctual at lessons and observe rules of school
discipline. They are required to respond to the authority of the teaching staff. A child spends most
of his/her time at school; the child meets a number of friends and teachers with different influences.
The school exposes a child to a wider world. The teacher assumes the role of the parent and
teachers are assumed or expected to be the role models for the child. The child learns skills to
prepare her/his roles in society. The influences of the teachers and the peers may be overwhelming
but some may be complementary to his/her previous experience with the family. School helps an
individual acquire skills not only of writing and studying but skills which could place him/her in
a profession in the wider world. Formal education paves way to adulthood.

Mass media
The penetration of mass media into people’s homes over the last three decades has been dramatic.
Mass media such as print media (newspapers); and electronic media (computers, mobile phones,
internet, radio, TV etc) has a greater bearing in socialisation. Mass media in its various forms has
brought changes in fashion and dress, the way it does with dissemination of agricultural
innovations. Critics of mass media blame most of the deviant behaviour or moral decay on mass
media. The African youth as well as elderly people are highly exposed to the western culture
through mass media, that s/he is slowly abandoning African traditional culture, values etc.

Francis Lungo SSW212 Rural Sociology 2021