Social Process

Social process is a fundamental ways in which human beings interact and establish relationship. In other word, social process is the repetition of interaction which leads to social result. Here interaction refers to action done in response to another action, but when this interaction through repetition leads to a result.

Social process is the way where interaction and relationship among the members of a society takes place. There are different forms of social change they are: Acculturation, Assimilation, Integration, Differentiation and Enculturation.

• Acculturation: Acculturation is the process of adopting other culture without losing own identity. It is generally a contact with advanced culture to modify own culture. It also can be said as the process modernization of culture by which the culture is transmitted through first hand contact of a group with different culture having highly developed civilization. Dictionary of anthropology defines “Acculturation refers to those phenomenons which result when a group of individuals having different culture comes into first hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural pattern of both groups.”  
• Assimilation: Assimilation is a social and psychological process whereby a person and group acquire the culture of other groups in which they come to live by adopting its attitude and values, its patterns of thinking and behaving. In short it is a process in which individuals and groups come to share sentiments, values and goals making them self similar in their way of life. According to Horton and Hont- “The process of mutual cultural diffusion through which person and groups come to share a common culture is called assimilation.” 
• Integration: Integration is the process of maintaining a harmonious and active relationship between various components of the society. It also refers for the process by which the different races come to have close social, economic and political relationship. Theodore Caplwer defines Integration as the fitting together of the parts of a social system to make a unified whole. 
• Differentiation: It refers to the process by which sets of social activities performed by one social institution becomes split off between different institution. It is an increasing specialization of the parts of a society. 
• Enculturation: Enculturation simply means to follow the traditional culture, norms, values, customs etc. The term Enculturation was used instead of the term socialization by American Anthropologist “Herskovits”. The individual in this process prefer to stick to their own culture and behave that they are culturally superior to other .