C ULTURE AND S OCIALISATION Activity How do you greet another person in your ‘culture’? Do you greet different kinds of persons (friends, older relatives, the other gender, people from other groups) differently? Discuss any awkward experience you may have had when you did not know how you should greet a person. Is that because you did not share a common ‘culture’?
But next time round you will know what to do. Your cultural knowledge thereby expands and rearranges itself. others in families, groups and communities. We learn the use of tools and techniques as well as the non- material signs and symbols through interaction with family members, friends and colleagues in different social settings.
Much of this knowledge is systematically described and conveyed either orally or through books. For example, notice the interaction below. Notice how words and facial expressions convey meaning in a conversation. social set up like in villages, towns and cities.
In different environments, people adapt different strategies to cope with the natural and social conditions. This leads to the emergence of diverse ways of life or cultures. Disparities in coping mechanisms were evident during the devastating tsunami of December , which affected some parts of the Tamil Nadu and Kerala coast as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. People on the mainland and islands are integrated into a relatively modern way of life.
The This learning prepares us for carrying out our roles and responsibilities in society. You have already dealt with status and roles. What we learn in the family is primary socialisation, while that which happens in school and other institutions are secondary socialisation. We shall discuss this in greater detail later in this chapter.
II D IVERSE S ETTINGS , D IFFERENT C ULTURES Humans live in a variety of natural settings like in the mountains and plains, in forests and clear lands, in deserts and river valleys, in islands and main lands. They also inhabit different fisherfolk and the service personnel in the islands were caught unaware and suffered large scale devastation and much loss