Understanding Socialization: Primary, Secondary, and Resocialization

Primary socialization is the most important part of the process. It aims to introduce the subject into society and develops within the family during childhood. In industrial societies, television and primary school also play an important role. In this stage, the child takes over the roles, attitudes, and values of the people around him (parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers, etc.) and identifies with them. Gradually, the child internalizes roles and norms through a process of progressive generalization, moving from specific norms, attitudes, and values to more widespread ones. The process of primary socialization is not merely cognitive or intellectual but has a significant emotional component within the family. Loving relationships are created that have a decisive influence on our learning process.

Secondary socialization is a process by which institutional worlds are internalized, in contrast to the basic world acquired in primary socialization. New agents of socialization appear, such as labor, political, or religious institutions. At this stage, we are not in a fixed group like our family; to some extent, we can choose the social sector in which to enter. Social interaction has less emotional burden, and social roles involve a high degree of anonymity and are more interchangeable. In the primary stage, knowledge is internalized almost automatically, while in the secondary stage, it is strengthened by teaching techniques. During this process, growing pains can occur. Some are produced after the process of socialization, when the subject observes that the world of his parents is not the only one. The growing crisis leads the subject to problems of consistency and personal identification but fails to break the reality internalized in early childhood. Secondary socialization does not destroy the past but builds from it.

Resocialization is a process of internalizing cultural content (roles, attitudes, values, etc.) from a company other than that in which the subject is socialized, or new cultural contents resulting from a change in their society. Resocialization processes resemble those of primary socialization, aiming to get a new identity strongly affected, although different because it starts from scratch and requires a process of dismantling the old view of reality. This process is in deep crisis, caused by processes of personal growth, fast social changes, or immigration.

Tradition Through the process of socialization, we receive from previous generations a certain way of being in reality, to interpret what is around us, and to develop ourselves. Tradition is what we bring back, what we collect, and what is developed by those who preceded us. Tradition consists of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, and norms that cover all human activity (namely, moral, ritual, folklore, etc.). Tradition is the result of a historical process by which we obtain forms to make sense of things, but also power and possibilities. We can choose between one chance and others, so we must understand tradition not as a compensation for freedom but as an authority, and most importantly, a way to avoid always starting from zero.

Culture Anthropologists differentiate between material culture and mental culture. When describing the culture of a people, we relate to both their production techniques and their forms of social organization, religious beliefs, moral codes, customs, parties, and games.