Methods of Cultural Reproduction
The method through which cultural reproduction is perpetuated varies by the socializing agent’s relative location, awareness, and intention to reproduce social or cultural norms.
Enculturation can be described as "a partly conscious and partly unconscious learning experience when the older generation invites, induces, and compels the younger generation to adopt traditional ways of thinking and behaving". Although, in many ways Enculturation duplicates the norms and traditions of previous generations. The degree of similarity between the cultures of each successive generation through enculturation may vary. This concept could be demonstrated by the tendency of each successive generation to follow cultural norms such as transportation right of way. These expectations are set forth and replicated by the prior generation. There may be little if any empirical evidence supporting a choice of driving in one lane or another, yet with each new generation, the accepted norm of that individual’s culture is reinforced and perpetuated. Parents and educators prove to be two of the most influential enculturating forces of cultural reproduction.
Comparatively, diffusion is the dispersion of cultural norms and behaviors between otherwise unrelated groups or individuals. The integration of Chinese food or French linguistics into American culture represents this concept.
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Famous quotes containing the words methods of, methods, cultural and/or reproduction:
“If men got pregnant, there would be safe, reliable methods of birth control. They’d be inexpensive, too.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say—and to feel—”Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.””
—John Steinbeck (1902–1968)
“To recover the fatherhood idea, we must fashion a new cultural story of fatherhood. The moral of today’s story is that fatherhood is superfluous. The moral of the new story must be that fatherhood is essential.”
—David Blankenhorn (20th century)
“Although Samuel had a depraved imagination—perhaps even because of this—love, for him, was less a matter of the senses than of the intellect. It was, above all, admiration and appetite for beauty; he considered reproduction a flaw of love, and pregnancy a form of insanity. He wrote on one occasion: “Angels are hermaphrodite and sterile.””
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)