Enculturation is the process through which people learn the respective culture of society. The process of learning initiate since our conception and continue until death. Since conception we socialize in distinct social groups and interact with different people. Whereby we learn social skills via observing the encounters and social conducts of other members. For instance, new born baby initially socialize within institution of family. Where he interact with his parents, siblings and relatives. He learns basic social skill through observing gestures, symbols and social encounters of family members.
An individual often adopt the social behavior from people around him For instance, a child born and raised in pious Muslim family will frequently go to mosque, offer five time prayers and recite Quran. Whereas, a child born and raised in religious Christian family will go to church and read bible and may behave according to his religious education. But how an individual learned about their religion? And why the child born in Muslim family doesn’t go to church instead of mosque? Because since childhood they observe their parents, siblings and relatives taking part in religious rituals. As well as, they are being taught what to do or what not to do — What is right or what is wrong — which conduct is virtues or which conduct is vicious? Culture is transmittable, knowledge of culture such as norms, values, beliefs, clothing, foods, art, music, dance and language are passed on to the new generation. The process through which cultural knowledge transmitted to new generation is called enculturation.
Even in organizations and firms knowledge is transmitted from one generation to another via socialization suppose, Spencer and Allan work in the same law firm. Spencer is experienced lawyer and senior partner in the law firm. He has handled many cases over the years. Whereas, Allan is a fresh graduate who had joined the law firm as Spencer assistant. Allan observes and study Spencer case work and help him with the cases. However, after few years Allan get promoted to the position of junior partner in the same law firm. Most client prefer Allan to handle their cases if Spencer is not available or busy with other client cases. Why do clients prefer Allan over other lawyers of the firm? Because every client knows that, Spencer has transmitted his knowledge to him and Spencer has high success rate in the corporate cases. So what do we learn from this example, Allan interacted with Spencer for many years and learned from him, how to peruse corporate cases.
