Acculturation is a process of contact and cultural exchange through which a person or group comes to adopt certain values and practices of a culture that is not originally its own, to a greater or lesser extent.
The end result is that the original culture of the person or group remains but is changed by this process. This process is most commonly discussed in terms of a minority culture that adopts elements of a majority culture, as typically happens with groups of immigrants culturally or ethnically distinct from the majority in the place where they are immigrants.
WI Thomas and Florian Znaniecki examined this process with Polish immigrants in Chicago in their 1918 study, “The Polish Farmer in Europe and America”, while others, including Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, focused on their research and their theories on the results of this process known as assimilation.
Enculturation
The concept of enculturation is typically anthropological and derives from the English word enculturation, just to indicate that culture “enters” through an unconscious process. It is therefore a method of transmitting culture from one generation to another through an educational process, and differs from socialization which is instead the interaction between multiple individuals who have shared the same method or process of education.
The enculturation process takes place according to precise rules and thanks to particular figures assigned to this task, as in the case of grandparents, teachers or the elderly. The goal is to maintain, over time, despite adaptive changes, the cultural heritage and social conformation of the community. Enculturation begins from when a person is born to when he dies. Enculturation “develops throughout the individual’s existence, which continually enriches and transforms its cultural heritage by virtue of the experiences and commitment it must place in fulfilling the different roles it is called to support”. (Tentori 2000, 142)
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