102/22. 5:47 PM Knowledge Building – Week 7: SCC Fa22 ANTH 310 LEC 16787 Doonan Knowledge Building – Week 7 Enculturation Enculturation is the process by which an individual is brought in to culture. It is how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next.

Please read this week’s chapter carefully, as this material is covered in detail in the book. Enculturation looks at the relationship between culture and personality.

To some extent, a personality is formed by the interaction of two components: 1. nature – an individual’s own biology, brain chemistry, hormones, etc. 2. nurture – the part of your personality that is culturally determined. If you were raised in a different culture from the time you were a baby, it is likely that your personality would be different.

. By studying enculturation, anthropologists seek to examine how personalities are formed. . The way we think, act, and behave can be understood as products of the enculturation process.

Self-Awareness The first step in the enculturation process is the development of self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to make a distinction between yourself and the world around you.

It is the ability to understand yourself as a discrete unit, and to take responsibility for your own behavior. . Babies in American culture become self-aware somewhere around the age of

2. . In some cultures, it happens sooner. There seems to be a relationship between neuro-motor skills and the onset of self-awareness. In cultures where babies are held much more, such as hunter-gatherer cultures, self-awareness is reached sooner. Imagine the ethnocentrism a hunter-gatherer woman might feel if she saw what American parents did with our babies- forcing them to spend the day in Baby Jail.

. Baby jails are products designed to incarcerate young children. Unfortunately, the name did not appeal to parents, but with the help of corporate anthropologists, better names emerged: first Baby Penitentiary, then Play Penitentiary, which was then shortened to Play Pen.