Chapter 7: Socialisation for Subjectification: Growing Up With Others in an Indian Family

Early interactions in the family are assumed to be formative for a person’s understanding of relationships, whether with other people, the self, or the material world. The patterns contained in domestic conversations assist in directing the young child’s attention towards objects and events in relation to the self in habitual ways. Although this does not imply passive acceptance of ways of being, a child’s mind is inevitably guided towards cultural activity during social interactions. As a result of the creative engagement with culturally organised activity, individuals and groups find meaning through this semiotic mediation, where language become the medium as well as the message; whether it is about what is said, what is implied, or what is left unspoken. It is assumed that details of interactions are distinctly different across cultures, creating particular emphases that characterise social groups. This chapter presents evidence from social activity in Indian families to provide illustrations of the strategies that members use for the dynamic arrangement of social activity within the family with a special focus on childhood. Through these instances, it is possible to glean elements of ‘culture’ as activity that is framed within a social-historicity of human domestic activity and collective and personal identity.