© 2009 International Institute of Anthropology
© 2009 Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects
© 2009 The authors
© 2009 Lolita Nikolova
© 2009 Ernst Pernicka
© 2009 Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects
© 2009 The authors
© 2009 Lolita Nikolova
© 2009 Ernst Pernicka
| Approach to Enculturation in Prehistory and in Present 60th Birth Anniversary of Ian Hodder Complied and edited by Lolita Nikolova and Ernst Pernicka Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects 9 (2009) in collaboration with Stratum, Chisinau, Moldova Contents |
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Enculturation and Prehistory (with Reference to the Balkans in Eurasian Context)
Lolita Nikolova, University of Utah &
International Institute of Anthropology,
Salt Lake City, Utah
Introduction
analysis in depth of those processes that first of all had kept the humanity through ages, centuries and
analysis in depth of those processes that first of all had kept the humanity through ages, centuries and
millennia.
millennia.
In the present study, my privilege as a scholar is the opportunity to base my theoretical approaches
on long-term research in depth of Balkan and Eurasian Prehistory. Balkan Prehistory itself is one of the
best case studies in World Prehistory since rich and well documented cultures from Neolithic, Copper
and Bronze Age (Bailey 2005 with ref.; Bailey et al. 2008; Nikolova 1999 with ref. ; Nikolova et al. 2008;
Gergova et al. 2008) allow the researchers to construct interpretation models, offer hypotheses and ask
questions to which we may never find only one answer. The prospect of Eurasian Prehistory gives the
opportunity for broad cross-cultural studies and interpretations that in turn stimulates not only testing
already existed theoretical interpretations but also building new theoretical models and offering new
theoretical contemplation.
This research effort approaches enculturation as a theoretical framework of Prehistory.
Enculturation
Every generation and scholar may have a specific definition of enculturation . My understanding is that
enculturation is the life-long process of development of the individuals as members of different social
groups and with dynamic and changing identity. The closest concepts are socialization and education ,
although in fact they are components and aspects of enculturation. The best benefit of enculturation is
that it is an all-embracing and meaningful concept with ability to incorporate all components of our
everydayness and beyond everydayness in a unique way at any moment of our life. Enculturation
searches for pattern and offers patterns but at the same moment has the power for change that could be
crucial for any individual. We walk in the street, meet a person and from the next moment the last in
invertible way turns our life in a different direction. Enculturation is always active and never passive.
The crucial theoretical problem is whether for instance, all human changes can be named
enculturation. It depends on our definition of culture. In my philosophy culture includes values, then, if the
values are humanistic and positive, we will name the change enculturation. If the values are egotistical
and at the expenses of humanity or negative, then we may need to think about deculturation. From this
perspective, two different processes can be traced in our everydayness – enculturation and
deculturation. This fact makes the society in many cases static-like since both human processes in fact
balance the human system. If enculturation dominates, then, we may feel positive development. If
deculturation begins to dominate, the regress of the society is the result, one of the culminations of which
is in some cases the war since war attempts to resolve the problem at the expenses of humanity. In this
case we use the term war not only for military actions but also for all sorts of invisible and visible actions
which goal is to destruct the humanistic identities of people – from psychological attacks to physical
killing. Especially in our century, it looks the psychological wars begin to occupy more and more space in
the social life since there are aggressively thinking individuals who believe that on the social arena the
only important thing is the victory that can be at any expenses and achieved by any kinds of means.
Then, the evolution of humanity is a controversial process and completely depends on enculturation.
The regress calls for devolution.
For the goal of the project, we propose the following definition of enculturation:
Enculturation is an objective process of embedding of individuals into the multi-segment society and
of producing and reproducing humanity within individual and group cultural development by learning and
communicating cultural values.
Multi-scale society
To begin to dig into the society, the first problem to resolve is to choose the best way to multi-scale the
societal structure. From historical perspectives, according to the traditional anthropological scheme, we
have the hierarchy of band, tribe and chiefdom. In our social scheme, the elementary social unit is
family/household. Then, the processes of enculturation can be structured at a level of household, groups
of households in one village (possibly kin oriented or being neighbors), a village and/or a group of
villages (micro-community), a conglomeration of villages (mezocommunity) and systems of interrelated
villages (macro-community).
See the whole article in RPRP 9 (in preparation)
Lolita Nikolova, University of Utah &
International Institute of Anthropology,
Salt Lake City, Utah
Introduction
analysis in depth of those processes that first of all had kept the humanity through ages, centuries and
analysis in depth of those processes that first of all had kept the humanity through ages, centuries and
millennia.
millennia.
In the present study, my privilege as a scholar is the opportunity to base my theoretical approaches
on long-term research in depth of Balkan and Eurasian Prehistory. Balkan Prehistory itself is one of the
best case studies in World Prehistory since rich and well documented cultures from Neolithic, Copper
and Bronze Age (Bailey 2005 with ref.; Bailey et al. 2008; Nikolova 1999 with ref. ; Nikolova et al. 2008;
Gergova et al. 2008) allow the researchers to construct interpretation models, offer hypotheses and ask
questions to which we may never find only one answer. The prospect of Eurasian Prehistory gives the
opportunity for broad cross-cultural studies and interpretations that in turn stimulates not only testing
already existed theoretical interpretations but also building new theoretical models and offering new
theoretical contemplation.
This research effort approaches enculturation as a theoretical framework of Prehistory.
Enculturation
Every generation and scholar may have a specific definition of enculturation . My understanding is that
enculturation is the life-long process of development of the individuals as members of different social
groups and with dynamic and changing identity. The closest concepts are socialization and education ,
although in fact they are components and aspects of enculturation. The best benefit of enculturation is
that it is an all-embracing and meaningful concept with ability to incorporate all components of our
everydayness and beyond everydayness in a unique way at any moment of our life. Enculturation
searches for pattern and offers patterns but at the same moment has the power for change that could be
crucial for any individual. We walk in the street, meet a person and from the next moment the last in
invertible way turns our life in a different direction. Enculturation is always active and never passive.
The crucial theoretical problem is whether for instance, all human changes can be named
enculturation. It depends on our definition of culture. In my philosophy culture includes values, then, if the
values are humanistic and positive, we will name the change enculturation. If the values are egotistical
and at the expenses of humanity or negative, then we may need to think about deculturation. From this
perspective, two different processes can be traced in our everydayness – enculturation and
deculturation. This fact makes the society in many cases static-like since both human processes in fact
balance the human system. If enculturation dominates, then, we may feel positive development. If
deculturation begins to dominate, the regress of the society is the result, one of the culminations of which
is in some cases the war since war attempts to resolve the problem at the expenses of humanity. In this
case we use the term war not only for military actions but also for all sorts of invisible and visible actions
which goal is to destruct the humanistic identities of people – from psychological attacks to physical
killing. Especially in our century, it looks the psychological wars begin to occupy more and more space in
the social life since there are aggressively thinking individuals who believe that on the social arena the
only important thing is the victory that can be at any expenses and achieved by any kinds of means.
Then, the evolution of humanity is a controversial process and completely depends on enculturation.
The regress calls for devolution.
For the goal of the project, we propose the following definition of enculturation:
Enculturation is an objective process of embedding of individuals into the multi-segment society and
of producing and reproducing humanity within individual and group cultural development by learning and
communicating cultural values.
Multi-scale society
To begin to dig into the society, the first problem to resolve is to choose the best way to multi-scale the
societal structure. From historical perspectives, according to the traditional anthropological scheme, we
have the hierarchy of band, tribe and chiefdom. In our social scheme, the elementary social unit is
family/household. Then, the processes of enculturation can be structured at a level of household, groups
of households in one village (possibly kin oriented or being neighbors), a village and/or a group of
villages (micro-community), a conglomeration of villages (mezocommunity) and systems of interrelated
villages (macro-community).
See the whole article in RPRP 9 (in preparation)