Human Nature, Culture, and Socialization
1. Human Nature and Individual Culture
1.1 Culture and the Human Animal
The study of human nature is rooted in biological constitution. This allows us to discover the innate capacity for culture within ourselves. Human beings are animals whose unique biological nature opens them to the cultural order: language, technology, morals, law, art, economics, religion, and science. This is why we are cultural animals.
Our nature introduces an effective adaptation mode. Language provides symbolic and technical mechanisms that help us orient ourselves in the world, reducing the complexity of experience and fostering confidence amidst dangers. Culture, with its capacity for invention and anticipation, helps reduce the fear of the unknown and unforeseen, mitigating uncertainty.
1.2 The Concept of the Individual
Every individual belongs to a larger whole, whether animal or vegetable. We use the term “individual” synonymously with “human” as if humans were the only individuals. This stems from centuries of thought emphasizing the uniqueness and irreplaceability of each human being, deserving of respect, especially in the modern age where rights and liberties have been hard-won. This means, unlike what was thought in previous eras, that every human individual is a subject with rights that should not be ignored or violated.
2. The Genesis of Human Social Life
Humans are sociable by nature, as argued by Aristotle. He posited that humans are political animals, meaning they are sociable by nature and need the society and culture that allows them to fulfill their potential. Aristotle understood humans as beings full of needs that can only be satisfied within society. Only in society can humans achieve the perfection and happiness that their nature allows and demands. Aristotle also stated that humans are unique in possessing a moral nature, which is the basis and condition for society.
2.1 Living in Society: Not a Requirement of Nature?
Some argue that humans are not sociable by nature. They believe that social life is an artificial construct, a precarious form of coexistence that emerged to mitigate the inevitable. Society, in this view, is the result of an agreement between humans to avoid a chaotic war of all against all.
2.1.1 Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes, a representative of this pessimistic view of human beings, stated that “man is a wolf to man.” He believed that humans live in a chaotic society where each individual is in a permanent struggle against others.
2.1.2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau envisioned a natural, solitary human moved by natural piety towards their fellow beings, meaning humans are good by nature. Society arises due to a significant change in their habitat conditions, making it possible and beneficial for human development when structured as an egalitarian and not overly numerous community.
3. The Dynamics of Socialization
3.1 Socialization and its Forms
Socialization is the process by which an individual internalizes the culture of the society they live in, develops, and builds their identity as a person.
3.1.1 Primary Socialization
Primary socialization aims to introduce the individual into society and takes place within the family during childhood. Primary education and television also play a role at this stage, where individuals acquire roles, attitudes, and values from their family members. Gradually, they internalize these roles and norms through a process that ranges from the progressive generalization of rules, attitudes, and values to their concrete application.
3.1.2 Secondary Socialization
Secondary socialization involves internalizing the institutional worlds that contrast with the world acquired through primary socialization. Social interaction has a lower affective charge, and social roles entail a high degree of anonymity. Neither at school nor at work is the emotional or familial treatment that was characteristic of primary socialization required. In secondary socialization, pedagogical techniques must be reinforced by specific and complex methods. This maturation process of growth can lead to crises.
3.1.3 Resocialization
Resocialization is a process of internalizing cultural content (roles, values, etc.) from a society different from the one in which the individual was initially socialized. It can also involve internalizing new content resulting from a radical change in the society to which the individual belongs. This implies two things: first, a process of dismantling the previous view of reality, and second, a new, strongly affective identification. Resocialization often occurs during deep personal crises, rapid social changes, or cultural shocks produced by emigration.
3.2 Tradition
Tradition is what we inherit, what we receive from those who preceded us. It comprises knowledge, experiences, beliefs, and norms that encompass all aspects of human existence, from knowledge to morals, from rites to folklore. Traditions are the result of a historical process by which previous generations transmit to subsequent ones ways of giving meaning to things, but also power and possibilities.
4. Culture
4.1 Anthropological Characterizations of Culture
Anthropologists distinguish between material culture, consisting of material objects and artifacts, and what some call mental culture, which includes social beliefs, values, and norms.
4.2 The First Explicit Formulation of Culture
The first explicit formulation of culture is attributed to the anthropologist Edward Tylor. In his work Primitive Culture, he defines culture or civilization, taken in its broad ethnographic sense, as that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
5. Cultural Diversity
5.1 Common Attitudes Towards Cultural Diversity
5.1.1 Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism analyzes other cultures from the perspective of one’s own, making it difficult to objectively assess other cultures. This attitude has at least two consequences: a lack of understanding and acceptance of different ways of life, and a radicalization of in-group cohesion, leading its members to feel superior to others.
5.1.2 Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism seeks to analyze different cultures from their own values and not from the perspective of an alien culture. It recommends tolerance and respect for different cultural expressions.
5.1.3 Interculturalism
Interculturalism starts from respect for other cultures but overcomes the limitations of cultural relativism by advocating for the encounter between different cultures on an equal footing. It proposes the following objectives: recognizing the diverse nature of our society, promoting dialogue between cultures, seeking collaboration in response to global problems, and understanding the complexity of the relationship between different cultures, both at the personal and community levels.
5.2 Dialogue Between Cultures: Relativism or Universalism?
According to relativism, communication between cultures is almost impossible and not very desirable. Universalism, on the other hand, seeks to discover shared values while emphasizing respect for different cultures.