Enculturation

Enculturation ( loan word from English: "to integrate into a culture") describes the part of the socialization process that causes the imperceptible growth into the respective own culture from the initially neutral and culturally free newborn to the culturally integrated adult. Enculturation includes the automatic internalization of a culture, not controlled by intentional upbringing, and the conscious, planned growing into it in the form of upbringing as an enculturation aid and thus distinguishes itself from acculturation .

The British ethnologist Nigel Barley compares the result of enculturation, our own cultural character , with our feet: “We don't see them because they are right under our beer bellies and we are used to looking at the world without them. If we even perceive it, we see it as part of the world. The culture of the others, however, like the feet under their beer bellies, is evident and lends itself to unbiased and lengthy research and comparisons. "

The imperceptibility and unreflective nature of the acquisition of culture and the individual's own cultural character, which can only be experienced in contrast to other, foreign cultures, often lead to the view that one's own culture is normal , natural or God-given . Intercultural learning , experience abroad and multi-cultural encounters are therefore important approaches and opportunities to counteract culture- centrism , ethnocentrism , racism and nationalism .

The American anthropologist Marvin Harris (1927–2001, most important proponent of the theory of cultural materialism ) emphasized that enculturation preserves the continuity of the traditions of a society and counteracts cultural change .

For the German educationalist Werner Loch (1928-2010) enculturation aid is the main task of education and enculturation is one of its basic concepts . In view of the increasingly unsustainable separation between cultures, the German educationalist Ulrich Papenkort advocates raising the concept of acculturation to a basic pedagogical concept as well.

See also

• Personalization (development of the individual personality)
• Intercultural education (pedagogical approaches)
• Interculturality (interaction between cultural spaces)
• Missionary accommodation or adaptation (religion)
• Inculturation (bringing in behavioral patterns, ideas or views from one culture to another)
• Lifeworld (the human world in its pre-scientific matter of course and experience)

fList of topics: Theories  - Overview in the portal: Ethnology

literature

• Werner Schiffauer (Hrsg.), Gerd Baumann (Hrsg.), Riva Kastoryano (Hrsg.), Steven Vertovec (Hrsg.): Civil Enculturation: Nation-state, Schools And Ethnic Difference in Four European Countries. Berghahn Books 2006. ISBN 1-57181-595-3 (engl.)
• Notes on the history of the term "enculturation" (collection of psychological terms on the Internet = Stangl.eu )
• Göran Therborn : The societies of Europe 1945-2000. A sociological comparison, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York, 2000 (see Part IV: Enculturations, pp. 236–314)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nigel Barley : Sad Islanders - As an ethnologist with the English. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-423-12664-7 , p. 9 (original: Native land ).
2. ↑ Marvin Harris : Cultural Anthropology - A Textbook. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1989, ISBN 3-593-33976-5 , p. 21.
3. ↑ Werner Loch: curriculum vitae and education . In: New Pedagogical Efforts . tape 79 . New German School, Essen 1979, p. 14-15 .
4. ↑ Marc Fabian Buck: Werner Loch - a late obituary . In: Bulletin of the sponsorship group library for research in the history of education e. V. Band 23 , no. 1 , 2013, p. 16–23 , urn : nbn: de: 0111-pedocs-159799 .
5. ↑ Ulrich Papenkort: Acculturation as a basic anthropological concept of pedagogy . In: Education and Upbringing . tape 65 , no. 1 , 2012, p. 91–106 (Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz; doi: 10.7788 / bue.2012.65.1.91 ).