4.4 Agents of Socialization

1. Family — the primary group; unequalled in early life; transmits class, caste, language, religion — and the habit of obedience or protest. Nepali variant: the joint family socializes through hierarchy (elders first, daughters-in-law last); with mass migration, grandparent-raised children are now a national pattern.2. Peer group — the school of equality and of youth culture; first context where the child is judged by peers, not elders (the rodhi youth houses of the Gurungs are a classical Nepali peer institution — courtship and culture transmitted sideways).3. School — the deliberate, professional socializer: literacy, national curriculum, the "hidden curriculum" (punctuality, queueing, competition) — and Nepal's single most powerful ladder of mobility (Unit 6.5).4. Religion — norms, cosmology and moral sanction; in Nepal: the gumba for Buddhist children, pathshala/gurukul strands for Hindu learning, madrasa strands in the tarai; rituals (rites of passage above) as staged socialization.5. Mass media — the new primary agent: radio (once the nation's teacher), television, and now social media — penetration leapt ahead of norms (Ogburn's cultural lag, Unit 2), bringing consumerism, new gender images, political mobilisation — and misinformation — into every household with a smartphone.6. Workplace — occupational socialization: the apprenticeship into a trade's skills, times and ethics (from the mason-mistri chain to the law firm's junior associate).7. State — the civic socializer: curriculum, national anthem,…