biology, culture and socialization

Biology, culture and socialization

Daniel Gabaldón-Estevan

Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Valencia (ES)

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Bipedalism [http://atskoolwithmrsjohns.weebly.com/36-human-evolution.html]

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Brain size [http://atskoolwithmrsjohns.weebly.com/36-human-evolution.html]

Humans

Social animals, evolutionary link

Hominization

Biological inheritance Genetic mutation

Natural selection

Society: net of social relations between people

culture: information that organizes the relationship of people with the

environment and with other people, and is acquired through

experience or education. It is cumulative (oral language,

objects, books) and has allowed us humans to adapt and expand.

Believes (how things are) Technical routines (how to behave with nature)

Moral and social norms (how to behave with others)

Feelings and values (what things are desirable and which are not)

genetic evolution

cultural evolution

adoption of the upright position

release of the hands

brain growth (x4)

emergence of symbolic language

Socialization: a process by which we interiorize believes, norms and social

values, learning to be parte of society and to perform our roles on it.

It is most important in childhood:

roles are associated with

expectations and social norms

culturally learned and determined.

Genetic heritage basically identic

1) no instinctive determinism

2) we are helpless 3) plasticity of the

behavioural schemes

Biology, culture and socialization [Masjuan, JM. (2003) Capítulo II ¿Qué es sociología? Algunos conceptos básicos. At Fernández Palomares, F. Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 35-62]

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Socialization is dialectical: society vs. individual (cultural reality vs. personal identity) It is an adaptive process to the social environment through which we learn and internalize the sociocultural elements of the environment, integrating them into the structure of personality under the influence of experiences and significant social agents. Socialization is part of the social construction of reality It is an objective process while independent of us (objectified in theories, legal and moral codes, behavioral models, ...). And it is done through: - institutionalization (roles and norms that become tradition), - reification (institutions and traditions are no longer seen as arrangements but are

considered things themselves) and - legitimacy (symbolic universe that explains and justifies the existence of that reality) Subjective as it is only real if the social reality configures the thoughts, feelings and actions of individuals, defining their identity. The dialectical relationship between objective and subjective reality makes it unable to conceive of one without the other (individual and society).


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Primary socialization occurs first and is introducing individuals in society, is the most important and determines the successive. - It occurs through the identification with significant other and has a dual content,

while model and as a reflection -germen identity. - It is cognitive but also and particularly affective. - The identity development is done with the assumption of the world of others, a

progressive abstraction (generalized other) that provides stability and continuity to self-identification.

- The contents vary between societies, cultures and subcultures. - Special relevance of language as it implies the assumption of motivational and

interpretive schemes that shape behavior and provide theoretical elaborations on “how things are”.

- The world of primary socialization has a character of firmness, clarity, unproblematic. Order and security structure that instills confidence.

- By convention is considered to end when the formation of the generalized other is produced, however it is never completely closed.


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Secondary socialization Complexity requires more specific socialization as the assimilation of specific knowledge of roles, role-specific vocabularies (sets of meanings that structure interpretations and routine behaviors). And at the same time are acquired no-explicit elements as tacit understandings, evaluations and affective colorations. - Presupposes the reality resulting from the primary (coherence). - The affection and identification are not necessary. - The subjective inevitability is lower (it is easier to dismiss) is more artificial. The

more strange to primary socialization, more difficult to interest.

agents or contexts of socialization Are groups and social contexts within which important processes occur socialization (including individuals and institutions)

Family School

Peer group Mass media

Other (church, companies, …)


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Society

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History

Inequality structure (class, gender, ethnic...)

Educational system

Objectives, processes, students, teachers, curriculum, organization model

Local community, family, neighbourhood

Economy Production model,

Qualification & technology New labour

organisation, Labour market

Politics State model, Welfare state

Human rights & citizenship Parties &

administration Parliament & law Culture

Dominant & alternative cultures Values & myths

Mass media & mass culture

Educational system within society [Fernández Palomares, F. Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 12]

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Links [videos]

Zebra birth in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania: http://youtu.be/EYYDzjme_VQ

BABIES - Official Trailer : http://youtu.be/N009QUWUy7I

Genie Wiley - An Overview: http://youtu.be/KfOlPK2P_G8

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http://youtu.be/EYYDzjme_VQ

http://youtu.be/N009QUWUy7I

http://youtu.be/KfOlPK2P_G8

biology, culture and socialization

Education

social reality

social norms

social environment

social values

social anthropology

social construction

socialization masjuan

humans social animals