Enculturation

Enculturation is the process by which individuals learn and internalize the norms, values, behaviors, and language of their own culture through observation, instruction, participation, and social reinforcement. It begins in early life and continues throughout life as people engage with family, peers, schools, media, and institutions.

Primary agents of enculturation include family and kin networks, with peers, schools, religious institutions, media, and workplace also playing important roles. Mechanisms consist of imitation, instruction, reinforcement, and informal apprenticeship; language acquisition; ritual participation; and storytelling. These processes impart tacit knowledge about appropriate conduct, social roles, and interpretations of the world.

Enculturation differs from acculturation, which is the adaptation to a different culture after contact with another culture. Enculturation concerns acquiring and maintaining one’s own culture, while acculturation involves acquiring aspects of another culture and negotiating multiple cultural identities. Enculturation is typically lifelong and varies by individual, social setting, and cultural context, with subcultures and regional differences shaping particular patterns.

Through enculturation, a culture’s worldview, norms, moral codes, practices, and symbols are transmitted, creating shared identity and social cohesion but potentially limiting individual variation or reinforcing inequalities depending on context. It interacts with broader forces such as globalization, migration, bilingualism, and social change, influencing how cultures are transmitted and transformed over time.

In scholarly contexts, enculturation is studied through methods like participant observation, ethnography, and interviews, as well as the analysis of language use, rituals, and socialization patterns to understand how cultural knowledge is learned and reproduced.