Culture and society are two closely related concepts. The social being of a person is firmly connected with the perception of cultural norms adopted in society. Therefore, the process of socialization is always also a process of inculturation. In other words - the process of inclusion in the cultural paradigm of society.
Adequate human existence in a social environment is impossible without inculturation. Torn out of their native culture, a person hardly adapts to society - everything seems alien to him: customs, unwritten laws, traditions, and sometimes ethical norms.
In our days of widespread globalization, a significant part of humanity has become more flexible to the processes of inculturation into a foreign environment. Many people easily move from country to country, actively travel and get acquainted with other people's cultural customs. And yet, absolute cosmopolitanism is the exception to the rule rather than the norm. Usually, such transfers with a relatively easy infusion into the society of another country are carried out within the framework of a common cultural field - for example, Western (Euro-American) or Islamic.
But moving to a country with a culture that is significantly different from your native one is fraught with serious difficulties. For example, when moving from a European cultural field to an Islamic fundamentalist one (say, a European specialist goes to work in Saudi Arabia), a person experiences great difficulties with socialization. Local cultural norms influence the social behavior of people, so a visitor himself feels discomfort, and remains a stranger to those around him. The difference in cultural paradigms sometimes even leads to confrontation with the law: for example, a kiss on the street, natural in Europe, America or Russia, in Saudi Arabia is fraught with prison sentences.
Even within the framework of a single supercultural field (for example, Euro-American), people who grew up in different cultures feel discomfort when socializing in another state. For example, a Russian, even perceiving himself as a European, usually hardly obeys certain rules of social behavior in the United States or in Germany. For example, it is difficult for a Russian to understand how he can “lay down” a cheating neighbor on his desk or call the police with a message about speeding on the highway by an unknown motorist. In Russian culture, this is considered "snitching", socially condemned behavior. And in the West, on the contrary, it is a socially useful act.
What can we say about the past centuries? Previously, the processes of inculturation and socialization were more closed, so it was much more difficult for outsiders to adapt to a new society.
It can be assumed that in the future, thanks to the erasure of borders between states, the development of Internet connections and the simplification of movement around the planet, the processes of inculturation and socialization will become more and more simple, as people will interact within the framework of a single, universal human supracultural field. However, there is no talk of a complete erasure of cultural boundaries; on the contrary, as the pressure of globalization processes in many countries grows resistance to this pressure, expressed in the strengthening of traditional cultural paradigms.
Where did the difference in cultural and social norms come from? There are several reasons, among them historical, religious and social.
Historical. Each nation has formed its own culture, into which a person fits in from birth, absorbing also historically conditioned social attitudes. In other words, the national mentality plays an important role in socialization as part of the cultural and historical field.
Religious. One should not think that in secular states the influence of religious culture on inculturation and, accordingly, socialization has disappeared. The religious influence on culture is much deeper than it seems. For example, America and the Protestant belt of Europe, according to Max Weber, formed a distinct capitalist culture. This culture and, accordingly, the approved social norms (aimed at stimulating personal enrichment) are very different not only from the Islamic or Chinese cultural paradigm, but also from the Russian or South European (Catholic) ones.
Social. Cultural norms of behavior absorbed with mother's milk prevent the aristocrat from socializing in proletarian circles, and vice versa.
Inculturation and socialization begin at an early age, so it is usually very difficult for a person to fit into an alien cultural and social environment.
