Final answer:
Children are born into a common cultural world that shapes their behaviors and perceptions unconsciously through shared symbols, meanings, and norms. Cultural universals such as family structures vary across societies, showing the diversity of cultural practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Cultural Worlds in Childhood
Children are born into a common cultural world that shapes their understanding of society, their perceptions, and their behaviors largely in an unconscious manner. This cultural world includes shared symbols, meanings, and norms—the nongenetic information that individuals within a society collectively possess.
For instance, children absorb roles pertaining to family, gender, work, and leisure, inherently learning the rules for appropriate behavior and actions within their particular societal framework. Without being explicitly taught, they come to comprehend these societal constructs within the confines of their environment.
It is important to acknowledge that despite the presence of cultural universals, such as the family unit, funeral rites, weddings, and celebrations, variations exist across different societies and even within the same culture. These shared patterns or traits, while present globally, are manifested in diverse ways depending on the cultural setting.
A child raised in an Asian culture might grow up in a multi-generational household, while a child in the United States may be expected to live independently before forming their own nuclear family. These examples highlight the diversity of cultural expressions and practices that children learn and understand as they grow.
The role of language is another aspect of these cultural worlds. As children from all cultures learn to be proficient in their languages, they also encounter specific cultural ideas about language acquisition and use, known as language ideologies.
These ideologies shape children's language skills and are influenced by both research findings and cultural practices.