Deculturation occurs when cultural characteristics are gradually lost while traits of a different culture are adopted. For example: a Latino community that stops commemorating All Souls' Day and celebrates Halloween.
The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) does not include the term deculturation . The notion refers to the process that causes the loss of an individual's cultural identity while adapting to another different culture.
Deculturation, therefore, develops when a subject or a community gradually loses its cultural characteristics as part of its adaptation to a different culture . The concept is sometimes confused with other similar ones, such as acculturation or enculturation .
Deculturation, acculturation and enculturation
Acculturation is called the incorporation into one's own culture of elements from another. Enculturation , for its part, involves the transmission of cultural characteristics from one culture to another. In the case of deculturation, however, one culture is set aside for the adoption of a different one.
For some of these processes to be carried out, two or more cultures need to be in contact for an extended period. Each culture has a certain structure and certain "zones" where, due to their characteristics, fusion or assimilation develops more easily.
Deculturation usually occurs when there is a dominant culture that exerts pressure.
The influence of the dominant culture
The usual thing is that there is a dominant culture that imposes itself on the other using various mechanisms. Suppose that two neighboring cities, belonging to different countries , are in permanent contact beyond the border that marks the separation of each nation. In one of them, with greater economic power, English is spoken; in the other, Spanish.
In the city where Spanish is spoken, however, English terms are slowly beginning to be used due to the influence of the media and other products. The inhabitants, on the other hand, adopt the customs and traditions of their neighbors, abandoning their own. It can be said that in the Latin city, therefore, a process of deculturation takes place.
Deculturation and globalization
Globalization is one of the phenomena that is considered to be most committed to both deculturation and acculturation and enculturation. Precisely a clear example of this in relation to the first term that concerns us is that increasingly in Spain and in South American countries, a tradition such as the celebration of All Souls' Day is being left aside.
Specifically, what is happening is that the younger generations do not celebrate it as they have been doing for many decades. Now what they do is commemorate such a date with a party that has nothing to do with the custom of their respective countries. And they choose to opt for Halloween , which simply leads them to dress up and go to an event to have a great time with food and drink.
However, these customs continue to be maintained thanks to many people who continue to honor their deceased by bringing flowers to the cemetery and not by dancing in a nightclub dressed as any horror character.
Result of an imposition or prohibition
In addition to everything indicated, we cannot ignore the fact that, in most cases, deculturation occurs as a consequence of a prohibition or even an imposition.
Examples of this phenomenon that concern us are, as we have known throughout history, from replacing the language that had been used with another to completely modifying the ways of eating and even dressing.