Sociocultural Factors

[Lily Hazelton]

This chapter on  sociocultural factors was very interesting. I believe that I found the section on 'Second Culture Acquisition' the most interesting. I had learned about enculturation in my anthropology class, but I had not heard of acculturation before. I found it to be a really interesting aspect because it is almost like resocialization, but from a purely cultural aspect. Also, we had, of course, touched on the topic of culture shock after watching the culture shock film. I enjoyed, though, how this section laid out a definition with all possible meanings and emotional effects it can have on a person. My favorite part of this section, and chapter, though, was when they broke down culture acquisition into steps. Sometimes it is hard to puts thing into steps or a series of events, because you run the risk of generalizing or oversimplifying the situation. However, I thought that this summed up the process of second culture acquisition admirably and quite succinctly. I had also never thought of it in such a way, or process, before. I had of course heard and learned about culture shock, but I had never though of it as part of a process of culture acquisition, and I never would have guessed it to be the second step. The word shock seems to imply something that happens instantly, so you would think that culture shock would be something experienced upon arrival in a new culture, but in fact, culture shock sets in after one as become disillusioned of the idea, that this new culture os mostly similar to their own.  I definitely found this section to be the most interesting and informative.