Culture and Socialisation – Class 11 Sociology Chapter 4 Notes & NCERT PDF

Introduction

"Culture", like "society", is often used vaguely — in everyday talk it means the arts or the way of life of certain classes or countries. Sociologists study the social contexts of culture. Just as a map helps you navigate unknown territory, culture helps you conduct yourself in society. Culture is a common understanding, learnt and developed through social interaction; it gives a group an identity. Cultures are never finished products — elements are constantly added, deleted, expanded and rearranged, making them dynamic. Creating and sharing meaning through signs and symbols is what distinguishes humans from other animals. The Bangalore example: a commuter asks an auto driver "Indiranagar?", the question conveyed by an arched eyebrow, and the driver answers with a jerk of the head or a grimace.

What we learn in the family is primary socialisation; what happens in school and other institutions is secondary socialisation.

Key Concepts

1. Diverse Settings, Different Cultures

People live in mountains, plains, forests, deserts, islands, villages, towns and cities, and adapt different strategies to cope with natural and social conditions, producing diverse cultures. During the tsunami of 26 December 2004 (Tamil Nadu and Kerala coasts, Andaman and Nicobar Islands), mainland and island people with modern lifestyles suffered heavily, while the "primitive" island communities — Onges, Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Shompens — foresaw the calamity from experiential knowledge and moved to higher ground. So cultures cannot be ranked; they can only be judged adequate or inadequate in coping with the strains imposed by nature.

2. Defining Culture

Everyday use links culture with "refined taste" (classical music, even preferring coffee over tea). The sociologist sees culture as a way of life in which all members participate; every social organisation develops its own culture.

3. Dimensions of Culture

Two principal dimensions: material and non-material (cognitive and normative). When material or technological change is rapid and values and norms lag behind, the result is culture lag.

Cognitive aspects are harder to recognise. In literate societies ideas are preserved in books and archives; in non-literate societies lore is memorised and transmitted orally by specialist practitioners. Walter Ong (Orality and Literacy) cites a 1971 study: only 78 of about 3,000 existing languages possess a literature. Oral material has more repetition; texts become more elaborate when written. In India literacy was historically available to the privileged; a vegetable-seller asked why he needed the alphabet when he could calculate mentally. Students of Indian classical music are still discouraged from writing down what they learn.

Normative aspects consist of folkways, mores, customs, conventions and laws. All norms carry sanctions. Norms are implicit; laws are explicit, formal, apply to the whole society and carry penalties (a family rule on staying indoors after sundown is a norm; stealing a necklace violates the law). Bourdieu: to understand another culture's norms we must grasp implicit understandings — a return gift given too quickly seems like clearing a debt. Norms can vary with status and can be discriminatory (barring Dalits from common water sources; restricting women's movement).

Material aspects – tools, technologies, machines, buildings, transport, instruments of production and communication: mobile phones, ATMs, computers in cities; transistor radios and electric pumps in villages.

4. Culture and Identity

Identities are not inherited but fashioned by individuals and groups through relationships with others. Roles give identity but must also be recognised — e.g. students' own codes for teachers and classmates; women creating their own language and private space at the pond or on rooftops. Sub-cultures (e.g. elite or working-class youth) are marked by style, taste and association — speech, dress, music. A neighbourhood sports club can give members a positive self-image and a group identity recognised by the locality.

5. Ethnocentrism and Cosmopolitanism

6. Cultural Change

The impetus can be internal (new farming methods raising production and changing food and life) or external (conquest, colonisation). Change can come from the natural environment, contact with other cultures or adaptation. Forest-dwelling communities in North East and middle India have been worst affected by loss of forest access. Change can be evolutionary or revolutionary; the French Revolution (1789) destroyed the estate system, abolished monarchy and spread liberty, equality and fraternity.

7. Socialisation

Socialisation is the process by which the helpless infant becomes a self-aware, knowledgeable person skilled in the ways of the culture. Without it, an individual would not behave like a human — the "Wolf-children of Midnapore", two girls reportedly found in a wolf den in Bengal in 1920, walked on all fours, ate raw meat, howled and had no speech. The birth of a child also re-socialises parents, grandparents and siblings. Socialisation is life-long; the most critical stage is primary socialisation in early years; secondary socialisation continues through life. It is not "cultural programming" — even a newborn asserts its will by crying. Norms and values differ across castes, regions, classes, religions, village or city, and even the language one speaks depends on the family's socio-economic profile.

Agencies of socialisation

Socialisation and individual freedom: socialisation never completely produces conformity — there are conflicts between agencies (home vs school vs peers). It is also the origin of individuality and freedom, as each of us develops a self-identity and capacity for independent thought.

How gendered is socialisation? Krishna Kumar's "Growing up Male": boys used the streets to play and hang around; girls used them only to go straight home, in clusters. Gita Krishnakutty's story "The Bell" shows a girl who rings the temple bell like the priest's daughter Thangam, challenging ascribed status and gendered norms, and is punished by "tight-lipped silence" and the absence of her favourite pappadams.

Exam Focus

Q. How does the social-science understanding of culture differ from everyday usage? — Outline: everyday use = refined taste/arts; sociology = whole way of life shared by all; Tylor, Malinowski, Geertz; culture as learnt, shared, changing.

Q. How can we show that the dimensions of culture form a whole? — Outline: cognitive, normative, material; example of art or letters (non-literate community has the norm of third-party reading); culture lag when they fall out of step.

Q. What is the most effective agent of socialisation for your generation? — Outline: compare family, peers, school, mass/digital media; hidden curriculum; media evidence (100 school days, Shaktimaan); conflicts between agencies.

Key Terms

Common Mistakes