Introducing Society 4 · Section 12

such incidents have been reported from other parts of the world too. We have so far been talking about socialisation and the new-born infant. But the birth of a child also alters the lives of those who are responsible for its upbringing. They too undergo new learning experiences.

Becoming grandparents and parenting involves a whole set of activities and experiences. Older people still remain parents when they become grandparents, of course, thus forging another set of relationships connecting different generations with each other. Likewise the life of a young child changes with the birth of a sibling. Socialisation is a life-long process even though the most critical process happens in the early years, the stage of primary socialisation.

Secondary socialisation as we saw extends over the entire life of a person. While socialisation has an important impact on individuals it is not a kind of ‘cultural programming’, in which the child absorbs passively the influences with which he or she comes into contact. Even the most recent new- born can assert her/his will. S/he will cry when hungry.

And keep crying until those responsible for the infant’s care respond. You may have seen how normal, everyday schedules of the family get completely reorganised with the birth of a child. You have already been introduced to the concepts of status/role, social control, groups and social strati- fication. You are also acquainted with what culture, norms and values are.

All these concepts will help us understand how the process of socialisation takes place. A child, in the first instance, is a member of a family. But s/he is also a member of a larger kin-group (biradari, khaandaan, a clan etc.) consisting of brothers, sisters and other relatives of the parents. The family into which s/he is born may be a nuclear or extended family.

It is also a member of a larger society such as a tribe or sub- caste, a clan or a biradari, a religious and linguistic group. Membership of these groups and institutions imposes certain behavioural norms and values on each member. Corresponding to these memberships there are roles that are performed, e.g. that of a son, a daughter, a grandchild or a student.

These are multiple roles, which are performed simultaneously. The process of learning the norms, attitudes, values or behavioural patterns of these groups begins early in life and continues throughout one’s life. The norms and values may differ within a society in different families belonging to different castes, regions or social classes or religious groups according to whether one lives in a village or a city or one belongs to a tribe and if to a tribe, to which tribe. Indeed the very language that one speaks depends on the region one comes from.

Whether the language is closer to a spoken dialect or to a standardised written form depends on the family and the socio-economic and cultural profile of the family. Agencies of Socialisation The child is socialised by several agencies and institutions in which