Cultural reproduction: Funds of knowledge as survival strategies in the Mexican-American community.

Abstract

The Mexican American population in the United States, as all other human groups, employ a number of strategies and practices in order to ensure the maintenance and continuation of its members. These strategies are culturally derived, and they have been created by the interaction of people's practices with the social, economic, and political forces of the larger environment. Mexican American culture is reproduced across generations through the enactment of historically constituted social practices or funds of knowledge. These practices are "acted out" by actors within the domain of the household or the family in its relation to the capitalist system. In order to understand cultural reproduction in the Mexican American community, the structure and operation of four households were examined. The practices used by people to meet household members' sustenance, shelter, education, household management, and emotional/psychological needs are explored. Household members practices were divided in three domains: economic, social/recreational, and ceremonial/religious. In a sense then, Mexican Americans are enculturated by carrying out activities appropriate to the immediate cultural setting. In this social setting, children learn appropriate ways of behaving by interacting with other people whom, through verbal and nonverbal ways, teach them the norms appropriate to their cultural group. In addition, children spend a great part of the day in another setting (the school). This setting, as part of the larger environment, influences household members practices, but the institution is affected in return. The interplay of these factors affects students' academic achievement.