Socio-cultural birth

The term “second, socio-cultural birth ” describes a concept used in zoology , anthropology and sociology , which, after natural birth, assumes an early stage of many months for the infant , at the end of which it is only socio-culturally 'born'. One also speaks of developing a socio-cultural personality.

According to the zoologist Adolf Portmann , humans are - in comparison to other primates - a "habitual premature birth" and need almost a year (the "extra- uterine spring") in the "social womb" to gain essential social survival skills.

Only in this period of humanization , which was sociologically investigated by René König and Dieter Claessens following Portmann , can humans gain a basic trust in fellow human beings without remaining an emotional cripple unable to bond - if they should survive this phase at all. Stimulating the senses through pleasant body contacts, familiar voices, pictorial and interpreted impressions and learning to speak the language are important for turning to one's social environment. That is why he absolutely needs a "permanent reference person" during this time who gives him emotional security.

Long-term caregivers do not necessarily have to be the biological parents, although actors with a mother's and / or father's love are the closest 'socio-cultural obstetricians'. Orphans in orphanages, children in homes, but also neglected children in the nuclear family are particularly at risk . They can experience indifference, tearfulness, clinging, then aggressiveness, depression, nutritional disorders and delays in the development of intelligence and in the acquisition of language; extreme consequences are hospitalism , marasmus and death.

literature

Alfred Bellebaum : Basic sociological terms. 11th edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-17-011347-X .