February 14th 2008

Enculturation: the process by which culture is passed from one generation to the next · This process begins very early, it seems the core of all humans is to connect with others
The power of enculturation can be illustrated by feral children. Wesch showed the example of Sunjit Kumar from Fiji.
(video of boy raised locked in chicken coup. grandpa locked him in chicken coup when his parents died. He has had to start over and relearn how to be human. This demonstrates the importance of enculturation.)

Here is another example, Oxana Malaya from Ukraine:



Naming practices
Cultureal difference:
In Bolivia they don’t name till child can speak
In Nigeria names have specific meanings
Bali:Wesch story of honeymoon meet man in market named Ketut, told to meet him the next day in the same area. He waits and people start laughing and watching. All these people start coming out saying they are Ketut. Your named in order in which your born, first born Wayan; second Made, third Nyoman, fourth Ketut. Purpose is to fulfill role in society.
In America it is a name that has a “blank slate” ·

Lullabies
Kenya: Message is share with others
American: Hush little baby and mom and dad will buy you every thing

Dependence Training	Independence Training
contact over 70% of the time	contact about 20% of the time
sleep with family	sleep alone
emphasize cooperation	emphasize competition

Example: Wesch played basketball in New Geunia, it wasn’t a competition to see who won. The game would go till it is a tie. * Children are taught in New Guinea to learn by doing, while in America it is by the “mind”.

Sex vs. Gender
Sex: Biological (note that about 50,000 Americans are neither "male" or "female" and this is a low estimate depending no how you count.)
Gender: Cultural meanings assigned to the biological differences between females and males · Sex is biological – is determined by the Y chromosome · Gender is cultural – used to describe the biological sex · Video *homosexuality in Philippines, gay men date straight men. The straight man is not consider gay.*
example of alternative gender conceptions: Native American Two Spirit


Genderlects in America:
from Deborah Tannen, who more recently wrote a book about communication between mothers and daughters:




Independence/Intimacy example: Everybody Loves Raymond clip
Status/Connection example: boys connect, girls relate
Direct/Indirect example: "Do you want some ice cream?"
Metamessages: what may be inferred from or implied by a message.
Public/Private example: Men talk more in public
Report/Rapport example: Women sharing their problems of the day. Men try to fix them. Men here a report, while women are trying to build rapport.

These two genderlects can actually feed off of one another, and split further apart, a process Gregory Bateson calls: Schismogenesis.

The solution to the problems resulting from genderlects is to "metacommunicate" - to talk about each other's styles and assumptions about communication.