Culture & Socialization, A Review
Sociological Meanderings Towards Collective Well-Being
Why do sociologists talk about culture? Or, in other words, how are our questions about culture different from those of cultural anthropologists? Cultural anthropologists seek to understand cultures on their terms and to highlight how culture is socially constructed and variable across historical and geographic locations. Sociologists use what we learn from cultural anthropologists to talk about the role that culture plays in organizing people.
In particular, we talk about how culture does the work of social solidarity: we become more likely to be committed to social structures when we have a culture around the structure. For example: if we value (culture) respecting property we are more likely to support/follow the laws (structure) about private property. Or, when the people of society start to lose solidarity around a law (structure), space opens up for those laws to change. For example: when a group of people’s beliefs lead them to see marijuana as a medical resource and not worthy of arrest or incarceration (culture), then solidarity around the illegality begins to wane, and movements to change the laws build momentum. We have been living through this reality for the past few years as we’ve seen more and more local and state municipalities legalize marijuana.
Since we know that culture is socially constructed, it’s also important to note that that process is a social — and psychological — process.
Critical thinkers: see how multiple disciplines are involved in our understanding of certain phenomenon? This is why sociology is A perspective, but not THE ONLY or the “right” perspective. It is one of a multitude of tools at our disposal to become more engaged citizens of the world.
So, back to socialization. What I want to focus on here are three key points from the lectures:
- The process is both social and psychological
Our brains don’t develop the capacity for critical thinking until we are at least 16, if not older (sometimes in our early 20s). Thus, we learn things when we are kids that we can’t process critically. And, then, like shampoo (rinse & repeat), we learn cultural norms repeatedly, and then they become habituated into our brains. Once this happens, we practice cultural norms without even being aware of what we are doing, because it’s a habit (like putting pants on before leaving the house and brushing our teeth with a plastic toothbrush). Take an Introduction to Psychology class to learn about brain development :)
2. Ethnocentrism is an inevitable outcome of the process
Once we become habituated to our own cultural norms, we come to see it as “normal” and “natural,” and thus when we encounter other societies’ cultural practices we find it to be “unusual” or “strange.” This can lead to two phenomena: culture shock and ethnocentrism.
3. We can develop a “sociological imagination” to become more aware of this process and thus to reduce our own ethnocentrism as adults/critical thinkers.
We can challenge the kind of binary thinking (either/or) that leads us to see “normal” as something permanent and with an opposite: “strange” or “unusual.” With a “sociological imagination,” we can develop some cultural relativism, whereby we understand that our way of doing things is one way, even as it feels “normal” and “natural,” but that it’s also just one way among many possible ways.
Sidenote: we can also still develop a moral compass, but to be clear, ethnocentrism can lead us to apply our moral compass to others’ cultures differently than our own. For example, when we judge another society’s cultural views of women and argue that they are “backward,” while ignoring the reality that an American is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds. If we want to develop a moral belief against violence against women we have to apply that morality equally, to all types of violence against women — to both what is “strange” to us (e.g. not letting women drive or go to school) and to what is “normal” to us (e.g. sexual harassment and violence on college campuses).
Once culture becomes habituated, and we enact it without much thought, then those cultural values and beliefs can support existing social structures. Thus highlighting the reciprocal relationship between culture and structure!
Happy learning,
Dr. Monica
